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Quinn Yeargain

@yeargain.bsky.social

1855 Professor of the Law of Democracy at Michigan State. Contributor to The Downballot. I teach, write, and post about state constitutional law, institutional development, and criminal law. I write (infrequently) at guaranteedrepublics.substack.com.

10,397 Followers  |  572 Following  |  3,346 Posts  |  Joined: 01.07.2023
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Posts by Quinn Yeargain (@yeargain.bsky.social)

I tried this for my workshop last year just to test it. I put in everyone’s availability, titles of their projects and subject areas, specifications for panel sizes and lengths, and then . . . it produced an entirely unworkable schedule that ignored the availabilities altogether.

03.03.2026 23:28 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

demlgs.org/wp-content/u...

03.03.2026 20:35 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Public Policy Polling memo reading:

With just two weeks to go, the latest PPP poll among Democratic primary voters in Illinois
finds that Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton has pulled into the lead in the race for U.S. Senate.
Stratton leads with 33%, followed by Krishnamoorthi at 30% and Congresswoman Robin
Kelly at 11%.
Over our last three polls since early February, her vote share has steadily increased from
23%, to 27%, and now 33%--a 10-point gain in the last four weeks. Just one week ago,
Stratton trailed Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, 27% to 29% and now she leads him
33% to 30%.
The favorability rating for Krishnamoorthi has dropped from 51 favorable/15 unfavorable,
to 47/24, to now 41/30 across our three polls over the last four weeks. He’s gone from a
+36 net favorability rating to +9, indicating that voters are holding increasingly negative
opinions about Krishnamoorthi in the closing weeks of the race. On the other hand,
Stratton continues to have a strong favorable rating at 40/16 holding steady from last week
(43/15).

Public Policy Polling memo reading: With just two weeks to go, the latest PPP poll among Democratic primary voters in Illinois finds that Lt. Governor Juliana Stratton has pulled into the lead in the race for U.S. Senate. Stratton leads with 33%, followed by Krishnamoorthi at 30% and Congresswoman Robin Kelly at 11%. Over our last three polls since early February, her vote share has steadily increased from 23%, to 27%, and now 33%--a 10-point gain in the last four weeks. Just one week ago, Stratton trailed Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, 27% to 29% and now she leads him 33% to 30%. The favorability rating for Krishnamoorthi has dropped from 51 favorable/15 unfavorable, to 47/24, to now 41/30 across our three polls over the last four weeks. He’s gone from a +36 net favorability rating to +9, indicating that voters are holding increasingly negative opinions about Krishnamoorthi in the closing weeks of the race. On the other hand, Stratton continues to have a strong favorable rating at 40/16 holding steady from last week (43/15).

Let’s gooooooo

03.03.2026 19:49 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 2

Now forthcoming in the Duquesne Law Review!

03.03.2026 18:41 β€” πŸ‘ 16    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I did!! I appreciate it!!

03.03.2026 16:50 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

hell yeah state constitutions

03.03.2026 16:42 β€” πŸ‘ 11    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

Fwiw I do pretty much all of my very basic graphic design in Google Slides, which makes it pretty easy!

02.03.2026 21:46 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

This is via @daveweigel.bsky.social, from a Third Way event happening today.

This is so malignant and unserious. That these groups have to put their thumb on the scale so egregiously to get the results they've pre-ordained tells you everything you need to know about them. x.com/daveweigel/s...

02.03.2026 20:22 β€” πŸ‘ 360    πŸ” 83    πŸ’¬ 23    πŸ“Œ 41

What a sense of accomplishment you must feel

02.03.2026 21:13 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

every single psycho thing Donald Trump does he does only because almost every single federally elected Republican has chosen unilaterally, independently, and with complete freedom to go along with it unconditionally

28.02.2026 22:41 β€” πŸ‘ 3249    πŸ” 785    πŸ’¬ 32    πŸ“Œ 19
28.02.2026 02:08 β€” πŸ‘ 267    πŸ” 42    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

as well you should be

28.02.2026 02:02 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s always a great day to talk about state constitutions!

27.02.2026 15:34 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

The damage done to Labour by the by-election loss seems massive. Their argument to centre-left voters that they should β€œvote strategically” to defeat Reform failed. Now, there’s a *more* plausible argument for Labour voters to vote strategically *against* Labour and for Greens or the LibDems.

27.02.2026 12:32 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

yep. that’s what I thought of.

25.02.2026 22:35 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

I really don't have words

25.02.2026 21:30 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

I find it incredibly insulting when Ivy League law journalsβ€”which have never accepted my piecesβ€”suddenly think that I possess expertise and that my thoughts are worth listening to when they want me to review a piece for them.

25.02.2026 01:21 β€” πŸ‘ 23    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0

I'm old enough to remember when "negligently" meant something different from "intentionally and maliciously".

24.02.2026 15:16 β€” πŸ‘ 58    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 0

if a frog had a tail it wouldn't bounce on its ass

24.02.2026 22:30 β€” πŸ‘ 13    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
LLMs break our ability to conclude when there is proof of effort. We make high schoolers write essays and do math assignments not because we care about essay or because we don’t know the problem set answers, but because the effort trains them in a certain way. We read customized cover letters as an important signal of interest, because it has traditionally been hard to make a good one, and you could only do it for so many jobs you applied for. Gatekeeping is inevitable, and when the old mechanisms stop working, other measures will step in, like relying on the prestige of the candidate’s institution or their connections to decide who to hire, or what papers to cite or publish.

LLMs break our ability to conclude when there is proof of effort. We make high schoolers write essays and do math assignments not because we care about essay or because we don’t know the problem set answers, but because the effort trains them in a certain way. We read customized cover letters as an important signal of interest, because it has traditionally been hard to make a good one, and you could only do it for so many jobs you applied for. Gatekeeping is inevitable, and when the old mechanisms stop working, other measures will step in, like relying on the prestige of the candidate’s institution or their connections to decide who to hire, or what papers to cite or publish.

I think about this a lot with LLMs and education and also publishing. The hope that by undermining failing or unfair systems, LLMs will destroy the hierarchies and unfairness seems... naive. The result will likely be the opposite. jessicahullman.substack.com/p/zeynep-tuf...

24.02.2026 17:35 β€” πŸ‘ 266    πŸ” 75    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 6

I hope there's a backlash, and if there is, it'll be severe.

24.02.2026 18:17 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

the gubernatorial primary is stuffed with candidates. one of them just needs to switch over.

24.02.2026 18:14 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

this is just evil.

24.02.2026 18:13 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

it's molting season for RFK Jr

24.02.2026 01:46 β€” πŸ‘ 6797    πŸ” 845    πŸ’¬ 101    πŸ“Œ 10

Why do I have to pretend that I'm going to print something in order to save it as a PDF. Why do I have to engage in a little ruse.

23.02.2026 21:43 β€” πŸ‘ 19249    πŸ” 2914    πŸ’¬ 345    πŸ“Œ 1

I made an offer for a house this weekend. I offered X over listing. The seller's agent tells my agent if I offer X+5K, I'll get it. I upped my offer. Then the seller leveraged my offer to get an X+10K offer and rejected my offer.

24.02.2026 00:30 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 0

surely there are no lessons to draw from this about the value of fighting back

24.02.2026 00:20 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

what a helpful, constructive response.

23.02.2026 15:11 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

hitting the low 30s is when things get real

23.02.2026 15:01 β€” πŸ‘ 692    πŸ” 101    πŸ’¬ 18    πŸ“Œ 8

way too self-congratulatory for a man who chooses to defend child slavery

23.02.2026 15:00 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0