Keith E. Whittington

Plenty of those need to be cleaned up in revisions

For some reason the Trump cert petition did not cite my piece, but figure it might become relevant

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Alas, still relevant

www.lawfaremedia.org/article/rip-...

Trump ‘Determined’ the U.S. Is Now in a War With Drug Cartels, Congress Is Told

Yet another no good, very bad day for the Constitution

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/u...

Is Donald Trump a Reconstructive President? When presidents push back against the courts

My conversation w/ @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social on whether Trump is a reconstructive president and what that means

open.substack.com/pub/executiv...

If I’m ever elected president, I will work into every speech my grievances with Reviewer 2

Joe Cohn Joins the Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech as Executive Director Cohn joins the center after a legal career dedicated to defending free speech rights and campus civil liberties.

Some excellent news regarding my new center at Yale. Maybe there’ll be some work for him to do at some point

Joe Cohn Joins the Center for Academic Freedom and Free Speech as Executive Director law.yale.edu/yls-today/ne...

Opinion | The Assassination That Broke Campus Free Speech Professors are allowed to say hateful things. That doesn’t mean they should.

Opinion | The academic-freedom expert Keith Whittington weighs in on the rash of recent firings.

Opinion | What the Texas A&M Firing Portends for Faculty Speech On its face, this looks like a textbook violation of academic freedom.

Opinion | Academic freedom expert Keith Whittington weighs in on recent events in Texas.

Rosie O’Donnell discourse leads me to Robert Dahl and his critics and how constitutional constraints are shed

The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool - Kindle edition by Whittington, Keith E.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool.

Nearly half off for Kindle edition

“Written with a commendably cool head, Whittington’s book will be a key guide for legal experts as well as lay readers.”

The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool a.co/d/aQl4iXs

I know there's a lot happening today, but this is sneaking in under the radar. This proposed new rule would absolutely crush foreign PhD students, potentially making it impossible for them to enroll with any certainty of their ability to finish www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

I’d say the appropriate reaction in a constitutional democracy is to keep someone with that attitude the hell away from the White House, but here we are

Ok, let’s take a look at this flag burning executive order. As usual, much less than meets the eye, but great for culture war fodder on both sides 1/

As predicted, the flag-burning EO is a nothing burger from a legal or policy perspective, but I’m sure it will help everyone with their small-dollar donors. But I would advise criminals to avoid desecrating American flags while they do their criming. 12/12

Foreign nationals might have more to worry about, but again not because there’s now a new legal constraint but because burning flags will be a good way to prioritize your deportation on other grounds. 11/

Let’s litigate to “clarify the scope of the First Amendment exceptions in this area”! Sure, good luck with that. And for those saying “But the Roberts Court!” The Roberts Court is extremely 1A friendly and even Alito has favorably cited the flag burning opinions. Loser. 10/

There is already evidence that cops arrest people in such cases that prosecutors refuse to prosecute. EO might encourage cops to be more aggressive in making such arrests, even if arrestees continue to get immediately kicked by prosecutors and magistrates. 9/

Same with the referral to local officials for local crimes, but one can easily imagine some overreach in prosecutions that courts will predictably bat down. 8/

The actual directive to the AG here is festooned with legal limitations. Maybe this changes prosecutorial priorities, but that’s it. If you are going to beat someone up, you might not want to do it at the same time you desecrate the American flag. 7/

Administration will prosecute lawless actions that also involve flag-burning? Ok, whatever. The prosecuting criminal behavior is doing all the work here. The flag add-on is boob bait. 6/

The EO wants to pretend that there are unanswered legal questions regarding flag burning that opens a door to greater enforcement action. This is a frequent Trump EO tactic, but it is a mirage in this case as in others. 5/

This is unlikely to fly. Flag burning as a type of “fighting word” is a non-starter under existing precedent. Flag-burning adds nothing to actions that otherwise qualify as incitement & flag-burning in itself won’t meet that standard. 4/

There is a pitch that some instances of flag burning might fall under existing 1st Amendment exceptions despite the Court’s ruling that flag burning as such is protected expression. 3/

Prosecuting Burning of The American Flag By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose.

The full flag burning executive order can be found here 2/

www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

Ok, let’s take a look at this flag burning executive order. As usual, much less than meets the eye, but great for culture war fodder on both sides 1/

The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool - Kindle edition by Whittington, Keith E.. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading The Impeachment Power: The Law, Politics, and Purpose of an Extraordinary Constitutional Tool.

Drafting articles should be a strategic effort with a political calculation, not a cathartic release of pent up anger

www.amazon.com/Impeachment-...

You start with the ones that will get votes, if you want the articles to pass. You start with the ones that will drive public attention and anger, if you primarily want it for mobilization purposes.