@kirstenwidner
Assistant professor of political science at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I study the political representation of marginalized groups. Co-author of Race, Gender, and Political Representation: Towards a More Intersectional Approach.
Just a thought about that injustice of the tariffs being permitted to continue while the Court can to a decision that was always going to be the answer if they followed the Constitution: importers will get refunds. The consumers who overpaid and the businesses that struggled or closed, not so much
Immigration officials should not carry deadly weapons. Ever.
Was coming to name this as my favorite!
But seriously though -- just because it's hard doesn't mean it isn't the right answer
Have you considered ordering them to work on it with all deliberate speed? www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
This was exactly my thought when I read this
I view today's decision as yet another grave misuse of our emergency docket. This Court should have stayed its hand. Having opted instead to join the fray, the Court plainly mis- judges the irreparable harm and balance-of-the-equities factors by privileging the bald assertion of unconstrained executive power over countless families’ pleas for the sta- bility our Government has promised them. Because, re- spectfully, I cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference with cases pending in the lower courts while lives hang in the balance, I dissent.
NEW: By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelan migrants.
KBJ, dissenting, says she "cannot abide our repeated, gratuitous, and harmful interference" while "lives hang in the balance."
www.documentcloud.org/documents/26...
Never thought I’d say this, but I kind of miss the major questions doctrine
UTK graduate students crushing it at the #APSA2025 judicial poster session. Stop by and see Hannah and Matthew in the Exhibition Hall!
We had one of these Charlie Kirk events on our campus last spring. It was right outside my building. Life lost to violence is always tragic, but I can’t stop thinking about the poor students who witnessed it. They have a right to feel safe on their campus
“Expedited”
SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in a college applicant's file is blatantly unconstitutional
ALSO SCOTUS: considering race as one factor in targeting whom to detain and deport is cool cool cool
These decisions are so discouraging. Where is the remedy if the Court won't uphold basic constitutional standards? www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09...
Slightly diminish a book
Pride and Implicit Bias
University of Tennessee Political Science is hiring! We have two open positions, one in comparative politics with a focus on China/Asia (apply.interfolio.com/1714560, and one in American Institutions (apply.interfolio.com/171457)! Come be my colleague! Knoxville is a great place to live!
Look, I know that it’s not the only/best reason to love Justin Jones, but THAT JACKET
CBS has lost all credibility/integrity
Laughing in front of cages designed to hold migrants and refugees, many of whom came to this country fleeing extreme violence and poverty, and hoping to raise their children in a more compassionate country. And many of whom followed all the legal procedures to enter the country.
Look, I don’t have to think Mandami is the best candidate to celebrate the fact that the sexual predator might not win
We also find that the OSG is more successful in cases involving its institutional interests when it is the petitioner, likely due to its careful case selection. However, it loses some of the benefit of other signals of credibility in cases in these areas when it is respondent or amicus 3/3
We find the OSG is much more likely to take a position that is against its presumed ideological interests than it is to take a position that is against its institutional interests in criminal prosecution, immigration enforcement, and protecting federal/executive power 2/3
New publication alert! @elizabethlane.bsky.social and I examine how the institutional interests of the Office of the Solicitor General shape its positions and the justices' reactions to them 1/3 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
And for the humans affected
As J. Sotomayors dissent says, the Republican Justices seem to think the Trump admin is injured “any time a court orders…it to refrain from doing something it would like to do.”
But it cares nothing for the people sent to countries they don’t know - places they’re at risk of slavery, torture, more.
Rubio is a lawyer and officer of the court.
They’re taking enough. Do they have to take “is the Pope Catholic” too??
Teared up talking to my students about the Abrego Garcia case today. This is an absolutely wild time to be teaching Constitutional Law
Lots of things are terrible right now but my students are so smart and good and they give me hope! 2/2
My brilliant honors student just gave a great talk about the Tennessee anti-suffrage movement to a packed public audience 1/2