Torey Dolan

i was all in on mamdani until i found out that he called his dad's cousin his "aunt" instead of using the term we all know and love, "cousin once removed"

More news about states trying mid-decade redistricting 🙃

Great piece @audrelawdamercy.bsky.social !

A Washington State Supreme Court Justice Condemns Federal Indian Law as Racist and Awful "Each time a court cites a case that has as its foundation such racist fallacies, it is incumbent on us to call out that racism, even if just in a footnote."

ballsandstrikes.org/legal-cultur...

I have a meme for this.

NEW: @amstatnews.bsky.social urges Congress not to adopt a House funding bill provision that would take away the Census Bureau’s ability to “inquire” more than twice to get a survey response because it would "undermine the nation’s statistical infrastructure"
www.amstat.org/docs/default...

The Hastie Fellowship is a two-year program supporting aspiring scholars preparing for a career in law teaching. Learn about the program from previous Hastie Fellows: buff.ly/75YTzc4.
Interested in the program? Learn more and apply: buff.ly/ib0bu6H.

This case is about whether someone duly elected to the House – who indisputably meets the constitutional qualifications of the office – may be denied her rightful office simply because the Speaker has decided to keep the House out of “regular session.” 2. If the Speaker were granted that authority, he could thwart the peoples’ choice of who should represent them in Congress by denying them representation for a significant portion of the two-year term provided by the Constitution. 3. Fortunately, the Constitution does not give that authority to the Speaker—or anyone else

This lawsuit, which demands that the House of Representatives finally seat Rep. Adelita Grijalva, has, um, fairly major implications for our democracy's survival in 2026 and beyond. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

New evidentiary privilege just dropped.

Listen to music and hype myself up while going over my presentation notes. (Still listen to my job talk playlists when I need a boost).

The number one item on my to-do list today was to update my course canvas…🙃

Thurs & Fri: Univ. of Penn Law Review Multiracial Democracy Symposium  #ELB You can register for and get more info on the symposium here.   In light of recent attacks on multiracial democracy, I’m honored to co-organize The Future of Law & Multiracial Democracy Symposium this...

I’ll be at Univ. of Penn Law School this week talking about America and multiracial Democracy alongside some very impressive people this week! Check it out:

electionlawblog.org?p=152632

Screen grab of the court docket showing: "Oct 08 2025 DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/7/2025. Oct 16 2025 Rescheduled."

NEW: Supreme Court's no longer set to discuss on Nov. 7 if it will hear North Dakota case on whether private individuals & groups — whose lawsuits have been main way of enforcing Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 — can keep suing. Change comes day after rehearing case on Section 2's constitutionality

The Congressional map that led to a retrogression of Native American voting power couldn’t viably be challenged because of the Gingles preconditions. Because no reservation community in the U.S. is sufficiently large to constitute a majority in a Congressional district.

My critiques of the Voting Rights Act are because I want it to be better and I want it to meet the needs of Tribal communities. I want voters to be empowered.

Many characterizations I heard from the bench and the podium reflect an alternate reality of elections, constitutional history, and law.

“We are the first commission that didn’t have preclearance. So our approach to the Voting Rights Act was entirely our interpretation of what that law means,” Erika Neuberg (Chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission said). “I did not believe that on the congressional level, that it was the right thing to do to continue to have the Native Americans drive the shape of the rest of the map.”

My response to the Louisiana v. Callais argument is to say anyone that thinks Gingles preconditions are a low bar hasn’t been a voter-side voting rights attorney. See this quote from the Chairwoman of the Arizona Independent Redistricting commission this last cycle.

I don’t know what the doctrine is, but I’d count this as political speech protected under 1A.

Now hiring for our next Hastie Fellow at University of Wisconsin Law, with photo of trees in fall at the school in the background

For over 50 years, the William H. Hastie Fellowship Program has provided aspiring scholars an outstanding opportunity to prepare for a career in law teaching.
Applications for Fall 2026 are open and should be completed by Nov. 16. Learn more: buff.ly/a3D8dFc

I’ve been the “register to vote” person in the family since I was 18 and I can feel myself becoming the “go to jury duty” person.

THIS IS TERRIFYING!

Few things get your blood pumping more than a good two-hour argument over standing, right?

Me from 2000 to 2024: I think I could win Survivor.

Me in 2025: Survivor might be a nice break from the U.S.

I am begging orgs that bring cases and post press releases about decisions in those cases to POST THE OPINIONS THEIR PRESS RELEASES ARE ABOUT

DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 11/7/2025.

NEW: The U.S. Supreme Court is set to discuss on Nov. 7 whether to take up a North Dakota case about whether private individuals and groups — whose lawsuits have been the main way of enforcing the Voting Rights Act’s Section 2 — can continue to sue
www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?...

Thank you!

If anyone knows of quality legal-expert write ups on the scope and impact of NSPM-7, please send them my way.

Federal judge blocks Trump's National Guard mobilization in Oregon "The President’s determination" that the Guard was needed "was simply untethered to the facts," Judge Karin Immergut, a Trump appointee, found. DOJ is appealing.

It was a blunt 31-page opinion issued by a judge Trump appointed to the bench in his first term in office declaring that Trump’s effort to federalize Oregon National Guard troops likely “exceeded his statutory authority” and likely violated the Tenth Amendment.

Law Dork on Saturday’s TRO:

A 160-year-old campaign against civil rights heads to the supreme court Louisiana v Callais could roll back what remains of the Voting Rights Act, putting the future of America’s multiracial democracy at stake

ICYMI: My SCOTUS term preview in the Guardian. It focuses on the Voting Rights Act case - and how that case illustrates the long-running campaign against Reconstruction & civil rights that appears in much of what SCOTUS & POTUS do. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

Hasty drafts in the midst of profoundly consequential litigation, and all in service of a monstrous program of mass deportation. I simply refuse to accept that's what the legal academy should be about.