Franita Tolson 💕💚 @proftolson

Whose Congress Is This, Anyway? Some Thoughts on the Constitutionality of the SAVE Act A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

democracyproject.org/posts/whose-...

07.02.2026 19:34 — 👍 0 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Whose Congress Is This, Anyway? Some Thoughts on the Constitutionality of the SAVE Act A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

democracyproject.org/posts/whose-...

07.02.2026 18:52 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Whose Congress Is This, Anyway? Some Thoughts on the Constitutionality of the SAVE Act A broad range of views on democracy to help break the stalemate caused by partisan conflict.

democracyproject.org/posts/whose-...

07.02.2026 18:47 — 👍 12 🔁 7 💬 2 📌 0

I wrote something on the SAVE Act. Not only would it disenfranchise thousands of people, the Act goes against Congress's institutional role of ensuring republican government in the states.

04.02.2026 21:06 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Congratulations!!!! Northwestern is so lucky!!

30.01.2026 00:36 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1

The SAVE Act would disenfranchise thousands.

28.01.2026 21:01 — 👍 2 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Agreed.

19.01.2026 04:15 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The ChatGPT era is actually kind of a nightmare for those of us who like the em dash

18.01.2026 01:20 — 👍 21 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 1

Claudette Colvin, civil rights pioneer on a Montgomery bus, dies at 86 Nine months before Rosa Parks made history, Ms. Colvin refused to give up her seat on a segregated city bus. She became a star witness in a civil rights case.

Breaking news: Claudette Colvin, a civil rights pioneer who refused to give up her seat on a segregated city bus in Montgomery, Alabama, nine months before Rosa Parks, died at 86.

13.01.2026 21:36 — 👍 855 🔁 362 💬 10 📌 63

photo of speakers

Thursday, April 23, 12:15-1:15 pm PT
The State of American Democracy in 2026 (SafeguardingDemocracyProject.org webinar)
Michael Kang @proftolson.bsky.social Lisa Manheim
Free registration: ucla.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

12.01.2026 17:07 — 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Congratulations!

09.01.2026 19:30 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I'm writing a law review article and writing a book feels easier, tbh

what a crazy thing to say, but it feels accurate in this moment 🧐

09.01.2026 19:19 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

She does a phenomenal job of cutting through the noise and getting right to the point.

09.01.2026 17:55 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Best Christmas present ever

25.12.2025 07:30 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

😂😂😂

25.12.2025 07:17 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Welcome to the resistance

25.12.2025 05:54 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Why does he never want to hear her say that she wants it that way?

25.12.2025 05:54 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 2 📌 0

I have committed to cook for my kids every day over break. Yesterday, I made stuffed shells. Today, I made salmon fettuccini alfredo. Breakfast is usually some type of protein, croissant, pancakes, yogurt, etc. Lunch has been salad, rotisserie chicken, or leftovers. Umm, this is hard. Ideas pls.

22.12.2025 03:06 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0

Good point, sorry I’m new at this 😂😂

18.12.2025 19:21 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Heard from the publisher today that the book will be out July/August. Can’t believe it’s happening.

18.12.2025 19:00 — 👍 22 🔁 1 💬 4 📌 0

Odd that my greatest fear is that being in administration will rob me of my scholarly focus. I still write and yet...that feeling rarely leaves me.

09.12.2025 17:00 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Kudos to you for following deadlines. Signed, I turned in my manuscript 7 years late

07.12.2025 18:24 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I told my 10 year old that I am about to speak on a panel to which she responded, “CLOCK IT QUEEN YOUR GONNA EAT AND LEAVE NO CRUMBS”

Me: Yes, I will be timely and tidy 🥰

Her: SLAYYYYYY

Did we…just have a conversation

02.12.2025 01:24 — 👍 18 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Guys look who I found

26.11.2025 18:32 — 👍 16 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This should be an interesting read

21.11.2025 17:20 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

This is why having degrees in the humanities are important. Imagine knowing the history of Haiti and thinking this is a good idea. Spoiler: You wouldn’t.

21.11.2025 15:11 — 👍 9 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

Terrible day to be literate

18.11.2025 03:15 — 👍 1687 🔁 152 💬 28 📌 14

JACH Fall 2025 The Fall 2025 issue of Journal of American Constitutional History is now online: Of Guilty Property and Civil/Remedial Punishment: The Implications and Perils of “History” for the Excessive Fines Clause and Beyond by Beth A. Colgan Contrary to the Supreme Court’s historically based determination that in rem forfeitures are nonpunitive, substantial historical evidence—including the Court’s own early opinions—show that in rem forfeitures were understood to constitute punishment. The Birth of the Dead Constitution: Arthur Machen Jr.’s Early Twentieth-Century Originalism by Austin Steelman Arthur Machen Jr.’s 1900 Harvard Law Review article “The Elasticity of the Constitution” influenced the long rise of originalism—revealing many of originalism’s now essential features--and helped give birth to a dead Constitution that proved ironically vital and ever-evolving. Dialogue Madisonian Liquidation Unliquidated by Jack Rakove William Baude’s provocative essay on “Constitutional Liquidation,” published five years ago, is the best treatment of the subject. Whether the liquidation of constitutional indeterminacies, to Madison’s way of thinking, is equivalent to the fixation of constitutional meaning, is another matter entirely. Liquidation, Then and Now by William Baude If it is true that liquidation did not “deeply engage Madison’s interest,” as Rakove writes, James Madison’s “interest”-level is not something that binds constitutional lawyers. Our historical accounts should be accurate, but our reasons for caring about historical accounts are reasons of our own. Symposium: Tenth Anniversary of Obergefell—Queer Constitutional History Queer as U.S. Constitutional History by Felicia Kornbluh and Marie-Amélie George Most of queer constitutional history is loss, as well as consolation and survival in the face of devastation. This is a fairly easy conclusion after two decades of the Roberts Court, in the wake of Skrmetti, and amid ongoing efforts to repeal Obergefell. The Tenth Anniversary of Marriage Equality: How Traditional Marriage Law Led to Constitutional Protection for Same-Sex Marriage by Joanna L. Grossman Had the history of marriage law been more uneven, it might not have been so relevant to this analysis. But the federal government’s longstanding deference to states in determinations of marital status made clear that this was a case of anti-gay exceptionalism. The Missing History of Romer v. Evans by Marie-Amélie George Although the outcome of Romer is well-known, as is its reasoning, the events that produced the jurisprudential turn have largely been forgotten. Uncovering this missing history helps explain how and why the Supreme Court inaugurated a new era in queer rights jurisprudence. Good Plaintiffs: The Women of Marriage Equality by Zoe M. Savitsky The early women who sought marriage equality did not look like “perfect plaintiffs.” Neither did many of the successful female plaintiffs in this study. There are, clearly, limits to the current perfect plaintiff tale if we have failed to see these women, intersectionally and multidimensionally. A Queer Constitutional History of Loss: Mayes v. Texas (1974), Privacy, and the Struggle for the Right to Be Trans in Public in the 1970s by Scott De Orio The history of privacy and substantive due process rights is usually narrated from the perspective of those cases the Supreme Court decided and that advocates for gender and sexual rights won. But it is also crucial to pay attention to losses, and even cases the Court turned down and to which it declined to grant cert. “I’m Not Sleazy and I Don’t Frequent Bars”: Respectability as a Legal Strategy in Transsexual Employment Discrimination Lawsuits, 1971-1995 by Shay Ryan Olmstead Transgender workers did more than simply assert their own normativity—they also actively distanced themselves from other gender crossers.

14.11.2025 21:40 — 👍 8 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

well, this made me cry

13.11.2025 21:48 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I'm so tired I'm incoherent.

07.11.2025 02:46 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Franita Tolson 💕💚

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