Beau Baumann 🍎

I think the federalists w/ out the anti federalists would have been a statist nightmare. I think the anti federalists W/ out the federalists would have devolved into governing quagmires and ineffective administration.

Personnel Is Policy: The Fabric of Government Organization - American Affairs Journal There has been a fateful shift in how we define expertise. The Progressive reformers built vocations that were tied to missions, visible to the public, and legible to politicians. Their successors red...

I think this piece offering a historical lens on vocational expertise in administration is well worth your time!

Navy + white + gray = eternal

3/3 I mean of course a flattening of aesthetic life writ large, but also a gray and colorless aesthetic in American political life. Of course, there are exceptions. But one of the most depressing things about the state of America is its aesthetic wastelands, of which politics is just a notable ex.

2/x Fascism, historically, has a v specific, nuanced, and in some cases brilliant aesthetic. But contemporary American fascism is totally devoid of any good aesthetics. When you put together Cass's question and this lived reality, a broader phenomenon emerges.

Does Liberalism Have An Aesthetic? Who Is Liberalism's Riefenstahl?

1/x This from Cass is interesting but he has the wrong move. If the question is "does liberalism have an aesthetic," we need to widen the aperture and do some historical work here. Specifically, you should talk about liberalism's rival in fascism.

2/2 But he wrote with cruelty about people with whom he disagreed. It becomes a tone of disregard and contempt that is unbecoming, I think, of public-facing academics and intellectuals. I think you need to write honestly and hold people in power accountable. But crap, I don't he walked the line.

1/x There's thing intellectual that I interact with who is long dead but who serves as a kind of cautionary tale. Robert Cushman was a New Dealer and a political scientist who wrote about independent commissions.

Accolgo il dolore! The secret is that it’s the rejections that make us feel alive 🤪

1/x @jedshug.bsky.social and I have put up an updated version of our paper, "Quasi-Judicial: A History and Tradition," up on SSRN.

This paper shows that the quasi-judicial function from Humphrey's Executor is simpatico w/ both originalism and a history-and-tradition approach.

You submitting? Let me know if you need a reader or anything! Been too long Fred!

My toxic trait is that I know it's bad for me and that I'm addicted to the pain. Truly cannot imagine summoning the will power to avoid the angsting spreadsheet this time of year.

🧵

Spring 2026 Law Review Submission

This was a good nudge:

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

So who's got the hookup for the law review submissions angsting spreadsheet?

ICYMI

*stomps feet* Why does fascism have to be so hard?

This is usually the point in a project where I convince myself the work sucks. Strangely, the longer I work on this, the more I think we're just like super right about this? Like everybody from the Brits to Madison to random Americans in the 19 ca were kind of on the same page? Weird.

@blakeprof.bsky.social @janemanners.bsky.social @ggkrishnamoomoo.bsky.social @khickmanjd.bsky.social @danielhemel.bsky.social @dbrodriguez.bsky.social @medlawdan.bsky.social @mjbalch69.bsky.social @nwdonahue.bsky.social @marktushnet.bsky.social @janemanners.bsky.social @jacklgoldsmith.bsky.social

@stevevladeck.bsky.social @jerryedwards.bsky.social @jamalgreene.bsky.social @ryandoerfler.bsky.social @alanrozenshtein.com @amtappeals.bsky.social @martylederman.bsky.social @msmith750.bsky.social @anthonymkreis.bsky.social @patsobkowski.com @katejackson.bsky.social @kateshaw.bsky.social

5/5 We appreciate any feedback. @narosenblum.bsky.social @asumrall.bsky.social @joshchafetz.bsky.social @david.noll.org @juliannemcshane.bsky.social @andreascoseriakatz.bsky.social @dfroomkin.bsky.social @profdanwalters.bsky.social @nicholashandler.bsky.social

4/x This paper provides a good reason that the Roberts Court ought to avoid overruling Humphrey's, or at least save the quasi-judicial function w/ a pivot to Wiener. TBH, this isn't an exception to the UET. It's an existential challenge.

3/x We find evidence from the English legal backdrop, the Early Republic, and all across the nineteenth century to show that an unbroken chain of Americans reflexively sought to insulate administrators who wielded judge-like functions or sensitive financial tasks.

2/x The paper pivots off the literature. The Founding was underdetermined on removal and executive control of administration. W/ that in mind, a history-and-tradition analysis would vindicate the quasi-judicial function.

This paper is one of the first to flesh out H&T in structural con law.

1/x @jedshug.bsky.social and I have put up an updated version of our paper, "Quasi-Judicial: A History and Tradition," up on SSRN.

This paper shows that the quasi-judicial function from Humphrey's Executor is simpatico w/ both originalism and a history-and-tradition approach.

Wow, that’s a really choice analogy

Happy Black History month! To commemorate I am doing talks at a private New England prep school today and at an independent black book store in Alabama next week. It's like the old abolitionist alliance that gave us emancipation and the Reconstruction Constitution. May we revive that again!

Strong early front runner for post of the day lol

A somewhat interesting fan though 🤷🏻‍♂️ like that guy in a fantasy football league who makes you think sometimes

This made my morning, lowkey