Brian Soucek

senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/repor...

Strong statement today from UC's Academic Senate:

When military recruiters visit, colleges must support trans students The trans ban violates the missions of universities — and their silence is dishonorable

An important piece from Brian Soucek (@brsoucek.bsky.social), author of THE OPINIONATED UNIVERSITY, coming in January 2026.

www.salon.com/2025/10/02/w...

ENGL 360 - Literature for Children at Texas A&M University | Coursicle TAMU ENGL 360 at Texas A&M University (TAMU) in College Station, Texas. Literature for Children. Credit 0 or 3. Representative writers, genres, texts and movements. Prerequisite: Junior or senior classification.

Unless I'm missing something, three people were fired @tamu.bsky.social because a class syllabus expanded on this effusive description in the @tamu.bsky.social course catalog: "Literature for Children. Representative writers, genres, texts and movements." (See www.coursicle.com/tamu/courses...).

MILITARY RECRUITMENT AT UC DAVIS SCHOOL OF LAW In accord with the University of California’s anti-discrimination policy and regulations of the Associate of American Law Schools (AALS), the University of California, Davis School of Law has a Non-Discrimination Policy & Statement of Equal Opportunity providing that: The UC Davis School of Law Career Services Office expects employers recruiting at King Hall to share our belief that the diversity of our students' backgrounds, experience and interests will enrich the legal profession. UC Davis School of Law does not make its career services facilities or services available to employers who discriminate in the selection of employees on the basis of ... sex, gender, gender expression, [or] gender identity. On January 27, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the Departments of Defense and of Homeland Security to revise their accession and retention standards to presumptively ban service by people who are transgender, finding that transgender status is “not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member” and with “a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle.” A federal law, the Solomon Amendment, 10 U.S.C. § 983, denies most federal funding to a university that provides less access to military recruiters than to other employers. For that reason, longstanding practice at King Hall, as at other law schools, has been to grant access to miliary recruiters even when they fail to comply with our policies. As the U.S. Supreme Court wrote when it upheld the constitutionality of the Solomon Amendment, “Nothing about recruiting suggests that law schools agree with any speech by recruiters, and nothing in the Solomon Amendment restricts what the law schools may say about the military’s policies.” Rumsfeld v. Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 65 (2006). To make our position clear, we will prominently post our non-discrimination…

Proud to see @ucdavislaw.bsky.social making its values clear, even as the federal Solomon Amendment pressures us to allow military recruiters to violate our nondiscrimination policies. These kinds of statements were common (in fact, required by AALS) during Don't Ask Don't Tell. What's changed?

Listen guys, if you're going to highlight this provision, you might also want to acknowledge the other provisions that require Columbia to restrict teaching, scholarship, and campus protest, and that limit the university's autonomy re admissions and hiring. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/19/u...

This:

BREAKING:

CASA (plaintiff in Maryland birthright citizenship case) has now filed an amended complaint seeking class certification for similarly situated individuals impacted by Trump’s EO.

www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-cont...

Orders with no accompanying explanation have no precedential force beyond the specific facts they apply to. The district court should grant this motion, and the lower courts should keep on granting relief until the Supreme Court articulates a rule of decision to the contrary.

BREAKING: A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore millions of dollars in canceled grants to University of California researchers, calling the terminations flagrantly illegal and unconstitutional. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Absolutely this. Nicholas Confessore clearly wasn't going to let the actual decision get in the way of his thesis. To be clear: the Skrmetti Court is 3-3-3 on the question of "extending new constitutional protections to trans people."

You can find the whole fascinating story here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... or here: publications.lawschool.cornell.edu/lawreview/20...

Tax Law as Muse Brian Soucek & Jennifer C. Lena Admission charges at Chicago’s small music venues are gen- erally exempt from tax. But a few years ago, officials came after clubs that hosted rock, hip-hop, country, and DJ performances, claiming that those kinds of music weren’t “commonly regarded as part of the fine arts.” Controversy exploded, critics derided the idea of turning tax collectors into “culture police,” and the law was quickly changed to avoid accusations of unconstitutionality. Plaintiffs across the country have similarly alleged that selective tax exemptions for certain arts but not others amount to unconstitutional content discrimination. They claim that the government has no business judging what is art or deciding what types of art to favor. But if this is so, then all levels of government in the United States have been acting unconstitu- tionally for an awfully long time. This Article recovers a largely forgotten history of federal tax- ation of the arts, dating back to World War I. Federal admissions and cabaret taxes grew large enough by the Second World War to change the course of music, hastening the decline of big band jazz, the death of tap, and the growth of bebop. Fights for exemptions embroiled Congress in debates over the value of various arts and their distinction from “mere” amusements like burlesque, band concerts, and the circus. And as the legislative history reveals, the lines that got drawn reflect the race, gender, and class dispar- ities of the voices Congress heard during the nearly five decades the federal admissions tax remained in effect.

Unearthing the historical context behind discriminatory tax exemptions like those in Chicago helps shed significant light on a notoriously difficult First Amendment problem: how to distinguish selective support of the arts from censorship. Perhaps surprisingly, the history bolsters the constitutionality of tax schemes like Chicago’s. But at the same time, the his- tory shows that government meddling in the arts—not least through the tax code—runs far deeper than even its critics realize. Over the last century, tax law in the United States has not just discriminated among the arts; it has helped determine what gets counted among the arts in the first place. And as Chicago’s example proves, tax law continues to do this today, helping shape the perceived status and nature of performances by everyone from DJs to drag queens, and symphonies to strippers. Desirable as government subsidies for the arts might be, to see their effects is to realize the need for broader popular involvement in deciding who and what should receive them.

Think the government shouldn't be defining what's art? Think the arts deserve government funding? Uh oh...you can't think both. My article with the amazing @jenniferlena.bsky.social is finally out, and it tells a 100-year history of tax law shaping what we see as art versus other forms of amusement.

Professor @brsoucek.bsky.social‬ recently participated in the 2025 Second Circuit Judicial Conference at the historic Sagamore Resort in Bolton Landing, N.Y. He spoke as part of the plenary session “Art & Legal Efforts to Silence, Tame and Cage It.” Read more at the link: bit.ly/4mKGczc

#UCDavisLaw

Hey institutional neutrality folks: now that Trump’s military trans ban is back in effect, are you going to say anything about the fact that you’re violating your own nondiscrimination policies when you host military recruiters? Is that an attack on your mission?

Thanks Jean! It was a pleasure to be on the show with you. Such impressive work you’ve done to make Law Day so powerful this year!

He retired in 2022

I was waiting for someone to post this. Federal courts ordered the Biden administration to engage in negotiations with another country. This is complex territory for sure.

But how much negotiation is really required to say "you know that guy we're paying you to hold? Put him on our plane tomorrow"?

Perfect timing for the new edition of the @aaup.bsky.social #Redbook!

That’s amazing, Allison! I can’t wait to follow along

Interestingly, this letter is signed by Robert Hur; Hur was the MD USA during Trump I, and then the person assigned to investigate Biden's post-VP handling of documents. He wrote that Biden would present himself to a jury “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

New Report: Most Students Say Colleges Promote Free Speech While freedom of speech remains a hot-button issue in higher ed, most undergraduates feel like they’re free to speak their minds on campus, according to a new report by the Lumina Foundation and Gallu...

www.insidehighered.com/news/quick-t...

Night of Ideas 2025: (un)Common Ground | KQED The Bay Area's biggest celebration of creativity and critical thought is back at the San Francisco Public Library and Asian Art Museum!

So excited to be a part of this year's #nightofideas at @sfpubliclibrary.bsky.social, 🗣️ about #universities + #freespeech . w/ @brsoucek.bsky.social + @dzambrano.bsky.social at 9 pm in the Hormel LGBTQIA Ctr, 3rd Flr. Capacity: 75 (est.) with standing room, so come early! ❤️‍🔥 www.kqed.org/event/5064

Happening tonight at the @sfpubliclibrary.bsky.social!

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Night of Ideas 2025: (un)Common Ground | KQED The Bay Area's biggest celebration of creativity and critical thought is back at the San Francisco Public Library and Asian Art Museum!

Full schedule and link to free registration here:

www.kqed.org/event/5064

Bay Area folks: come join me tomorrow night @kqednews.kqed.org ’s Night of Ideas at the SF Public Library, where I’ll be debating institutional neutrality with @stanfordlaw.bsky.social’s Diego Zambrano. 9pm, and it’s free!
@ucdavislaw.bsky.social @ucdavis.bsky.social

The book is better because of you, @jneuf.bsky.social!

The latest evidence that attempts at appeasement won’t work:

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/the-...

Well, this seems pretty darn timely!