Daniel Sharfstein

Every day Pete Hegseth confesses to war crimes in front of the whole world.

Analysis Suggests School Was Hit Amid U.S. Strikes on Iranian Naval Base

Even if it is a "mistake," it can still be a war crime. A person who acts recklessly in causing disproportionate civilian deaths can be found to have acted “wilfully” and thus responsible for a war crime.

Read "'Mistakes' in War": papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/w...

How Elon Musk’s Sci-Fi Hyperloop Failed Before his misadventures in government efficiency, Musk promised to revolutionize commuting with a subway that would speed passengers between DC and Baltimore in a matter of minutes. The project was a...

A year long investigation into the Hyperloop found …

“The truth was far simpler, far dumber, and far more prescient: Musk and his lieutenants truly had no idea what they were doing.”

washingtonian.com/2026/02/12/h...

We built the United Nations, with all its flaws, with the hope of never having World War II again and we're going to have to build a new set of multilateral institutions with the hope of never having Donald J. Trump again

As a former federal district court law clerk, I have to say it is quite a reversal from the norm when a pro se attorney is calling out briefing missteps made by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

No career lawyers on the brief, typically a sign that the arguments therein are indefensible

An original Nashville sit-in member, along with Diane Nash, James Bevel, and John Lewis. Trained in non-violence by James Lawson. At age 21, he signed a will before the Freedom Rides, knowing he could die.

May his soul be at peace, and may we all have such courage in the face of oppression.

Happy birthday, Ghana. The country's independence in 1957 marked marked a new era in the history of the continent and the world - a Second Emancipation, one might say.

ICE detains reporter Estefany Rodríguez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany Rodríguez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

The Reductive Rhetoric of the Iran War Americans across the political spectrum need to stop talking about Tehran in cliches.

Some thoughts on the war in Iran, by me. foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/05/i...

@raskin.house.gov (D-MD) derides the argument that it’s too late to debate whether to go to war: “What a humiliating, self-defeating argument!”

CIA working to arm Kurdish forces to spark uprising in Iran, sources say | CNN Politics The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran and the Trump administration has been in active discussions with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish lea...

The next Forever War is here.

"The CIA is working to arm Kurdish forces with the aim of fomenting a popular uprising in Iran, multiple people familiar with the plan told CNN."

I've been in the law business for quite a while and I've never heard of something like this. I'm guessing someone didn't tell POTUS about dropping the appeal and when he found out he blew a gasket about looking weak. Gift link to NYT piece:
www.nytimes.com/2026/03/03/u...

Read our #SCOTUS brief on behalf of an ideologically diverse group of scholars, including @ilyasomin.bsky.social and @amandafrost.bsky.social: www.theusconstitution.org/litigation/t...

Slavery and Birthright Citizenship All the Trump Administration's arguments for denying birthright ctizenshing to children of undocumented immigrants are at odds with the main purpose of the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendme...

Every argument for Trump claim that children of illegal migrants can be denied birthright citizenship would also have denied it to numerous freed slaves and their children, thus going against main purpose of 14th Amendment Citizenship Clause. See my post for reasons why: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

Law School Tells Students, 'You MUST Be Aligned Politically With President Trump,' For Summer Job - Above the Law 'GPA is not a strong factor.' No kidding.

The meritocracy!

abovethelaw.com/2026/03/law-...

This thread on Alito's outrageously misrepresentation of the facts in the NY voting rights case is so damning. Alito's account was misleading to the point of falsity. And there's nothing anybody can do about it. He gets to toss around bogus claims without any consequence.

Exclusive | Trump Administration to Drop Defense of Law Firm Sanctions The Justice Dept. plans to abandon its defense of the president’s executive orders that targeted Jenner & Block, WilmerHale, Perkins Coie, and Susman Godfrey.

Those big law firms never needed to cave but they caved. www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...

Very proud of my old colleagues at WilmerHale—and the other firms that didn't cave, and the firms that stepped up to represent them, and the lawyers at caving firms who subsequently quit.

Sign the Petition Keep the Classical Languages Major at the University of Iowa

Hi friends. As I previously noted, the U. of Iowa is planning to get rid of African American studies; Gender, Women & Sexuality Studies, & the Classical Languages major—along with others. If you wish, please sign the classics petition: www.change.org/p/keep-the-c.... I will add more as I find out.

The Gloss of War: Revisiting the Korean War’s Legacy - Michigan Law Review In war powers analysis, reliance on the interpretive method of historical practice, also called the “gloss of history,” has made history a technology of the forever war. This approach draws upon the h...

Rick Scott on @cnn.com: Every president since Truman has gone to war without a war declaration.
It's not a good sign that my work is relevant:
The Gloss of War: Revisiting the Korean War’s Legacy - Michigan Law Review share.google/bd3NyagMfAdL...

Opinion | The Great Unraveling Has Begun

Today's attack on Iran is an attack on the postwar legal order. Yet again, Trump has taken an action that threatens to end an era of historic peace and return us to a world in which might makes right. The cost will be paid in human lives.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/06/o...

With the outstanding teamwork with Brendan Benedict and Michael Altebrando, @evanbernick.bsky.social & I proudly filed this originalist amicus brief defending birthright citizenship in Trump v. Barbara:
www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/25...

this is a great brief and it appropriately ends with a killshot: the simple observation that if trump's meaning held, the birthright clause would not have overturned dred scott, the one thing it was absolutely meant to do.

We want the holodeck but are getting the Borg

A Democratic president in 2029 needs to willing to reduce the size of the presidency, which presidents are loath to do. In 2022 @qjurecic.bsky.social and @andrewkent.bsky.social wrote a great piece in @lawfaremedia.org on Biden's failure to get that job done. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/what...

it's a problem if the government tells a private company to change its business or else the government will not only cease working with it, but will also put it on a blacklist that prevents anyone else from working with it

another version state capitalism/taking stakes in private companies

Really excellent analysis of what made Wiseman's work so special, and what it meant that he rejected such documentary clichés as "cinéma vérité" or being a "fly on the wall."