Olatunde Johnson

Image contains Brennan Center & ACS logos, with title of the event, panelist names, description, and informs that the event will be Thursday, 1/8 from 3:30-5pm in the Louisiana Ballroom on the 10th floor.

📣 Attending #AALS this week?

Join @brennancenter.org and ACS tomorrow for a discussion on Democratic Reconstruction, feat. Kate Andrias, Joseph Fishkin, Risa Goluboff, @michelegoodwin.bsky.social, & @olatij.bsky.social! Reception to follow.

The titular wokeness being rolled back is the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Lively conversation last night:
Giuliano Amato, John Bessler, Marian Da Silva, Spyridon Flogaitis, Olatunde Johnson, Sarah Maree Knuckey, & Miguel Ángel Moratinos on "Universal Rights in Practice: Int'l Frameworks & Domestic Legal Systems" organized by Barbara Faedda.
@olatij.bsky.social

Next Friday: epic. If you’re a Yalie, rsvp! @ryandoerfler.bsky.social @stevevladeck.bsky.social @olatij.bsky.social

Next week! Tue, Nov 18, 5PM
"Universal Rights in Practice: Int'l Frameworks & Domestic Legal Systems"
Giuliano Amato, John Bessler, Marian Da Silva, Spyridon Flogaitis, @olatij.bsky.social, @sarahknuckey.bsky.social, & Miguel Ángel Moratinos
Register: tinyurl.com/mvhfvsvh

UPDATE: Following court order, UC has posted the UCLA settlement proposal on its website: ucop.edu/communicatio...

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Opinion | The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court

Inspiration and a road map from my colleague Kate Andrias.

The Constitution Doesn’t Belong to Trump or the Supreme Court www.nytimes.com/2025/10/10/o...

Now👇🏾

With contributions from @olatij.bsky.social @genevievelakier.bsky.social @dorfonlaw.bsky.social @jamalgreene.bsky.social @kendraserra.bsky.social @kateruane.bsky.social @evelyndouek.bsky.social @sbagen.bsky.social & others

Federal Funding and the First Amendment

A series of short posts from leading scholars about the constraints the First Amendment imposes on the government's authority to impose conditions on federal funding. Seems relevant! This is a @knightcolumbia.org series from earlier this year. knightcolumbia.org/research/fed...

What the Columbia Settlement Really Means

This morning, members of the Knight Institute’s leadership team published a critical analysis of Columbia University’s settlement agreement with the Trump administration. Read the full analysis here: knightcolumbia.org/blog/what-th...

The Strange Use of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to Control Teaching and Learning

@olatij.bsky.social on how the admin is contorting Title VI (also at issue in Harvard v. HHS) and the SFFA ruling in an effort to assert power over federally funded institutions: knightcolumbia.org/blog/the-str...

Thanks for being my anger translator, Madiba.

I read an interesting, related law review article once, coauthored by @olatij.bsky.social, that really got into the fraudulence of Dobbs' language about democracy & women's electoral power, and the deficiencies in the Court's view of political equality

scholarship.law.columbia.edu/cgi/viewcont...

A Title VI Demand Letter That Still Violates Title VI (and the Constitution)

Read the first response from Columbia law professors Kate Andrias, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, Suzanne Goldberg, @jamalgreene.bsky.social, @olatij.bsky.social, Jeremy Kessler, Gillian Metzger, and David Pozen. knightcolumbia.org/blog/a-title...

The Strange Use of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to Control Teaching and Learning

Excellent piece from our Board Chair @olatij.bsky.social on the weaponization of Title VI and how attacks on racial equity are unmoored from what the Supreme Court actually held in SFFA.

This is a great essay by @olatij.bsky.social, and worth reading alongside Trump's "proclamation" restricting foreign visas at Harvard, which cites (among other things) the university's purported non-compliance with the Supreme Court's decision in the SFFA case.

The Strange Use of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard to Control Teaching and Learning

And now @olatij.bsky.social on the Trump admin’s distortion of SFFA v Harvard. knightcolumbia.org/blog/the-str...

The great @olatij.bsky.social writes for our @knightcolumbia.org series on federal funding & the First Am, about how SFFA and Title VI are being stretched far beyond their intended reach in service of Trump’s attacks on universities.

Last week I promoted my essay about conditional funding, the First Amendment, and academic freedom on the Knight Institute website. I've posted the same essay on my blog, now with a link to some of the other essays that have come in. I'm looking forward to a day discussing these issues tomorrow.

A helpful and compelling piece on all that the disparate impact EO gets wrong.

The PI ruling is here.

www.aclu.org/documents/pr...

Federal Court Grants Preliminary Injunction Against Department of Education’s Unlawful Directive | American Civil Liberties Union CONCORD, N.H. – In a victory for students, parents, and educators, a federal judge has granted a request for a preliminary injunction blocking...

Enjoined on vagueness and first amendment grounds (and more).

www.aclu.org/press-releas...

Louisiana Federal Court Permanently Stops Title VI Protections Statewide Ruling blocks federal safeguards against environmental injustice in Louisiana

Ugh. The conservative litigation groups and some states have been making this argument in employment and EJ cases. T6 disparate impact is already unenforceable in Louisiana: earthjustice.org/press/2024/l...

Remember the 15 years of investigation, hearings, administrative guidance it took to revoke the tax exemption of schools with written policies prohibiting admission of black students and forbidding interracial dating? I wrote about Goldsboro and Bob Jones here:

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

RSVP deadline tomorrow, Wed Apr 2, to hold your spot! Livestream link on day of to those who register.

An illuminating analysis from @olatij.bsky.social who has studied Title VI for thirty years.

This will be amazing!! RSVP now to hold your spot- 6 brilliant constitutional law and history scholars discussing how the stories we tell about the past shape our future. MCLE credit available. @acslaw.bsky.social @marthasjones.bsky.social @olatij.bsky.social @fpeterson.bsky.social

Thanks to Kate Andrias, Jessica Bulman-Pozen, @jamalgreene.bsky.social, @olatij.bsky.social, Jeremy Kessler, Gillian Metzger, and David Pozen for writing this.