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Aaron Littman

@aaronlittman.bsky.social

Assistant Professor of Law @law.ucla.edu Faculty Director of Prisoners’ Rights Clinic Deputy Director of Behind Bars Data Project Scholarship at ssrn.com/author=1925841

2,802 Followers  |  1,358 Following  |  24 Posts  |  Joined: 27.06.2023  |  2.2696

Latest posts by aaronlittman.bsky.social on Bluesky

No.

Signed, a criminologist (for all intents and purposes)

03.10.2025 04:44 — 👍 99    🔁 15    💬 2    📌 0
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I have never seen such a blistering rebuke of a President by a federal judge. He is telling us clearly to stand up for our liberty against a dictator. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

30.09.2025 18:05 — 👍 8931    🔁 2849    💬 131    📌 100

It is funny for sure. The reason for the difference is that the closer analogy here is between Columbia's board and ABC's executives, who responded similarly. Kimmel is more like Columbia faculty who have resisted their bosses' capitulation. The recurring pattern is: management cowers, labor fights.

27.09.2025 13:30 — 👍 593    🔁 145    💬 10    📌 2

I'm just gonna keep reposting this inane BS from Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence on the roving immigration patrol case from LA.

23.09.2025 13:35 — 👍 1789    🔁 711    💬 66    📌 22
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The irony is not lost on me. Chin up, Jimmy. 🙏

20.09.2025 18:57 — 👍 240    🔁 48    💬 6    📌 3
Dear President Milliken, Regents, and Governor Newsom,
As faculty members of University of California law schools, we endorse Governor Newsom's commitment to resist the Trump Administration's unlawful actions taken against the University of California, Los Angeles. The Governor is on firm legal ground. The Trump Administration's termination and suspension of federal funds has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in numerous ways. Governor Newsom and the University of California Regents will protect the vital interests not only of Californians but of all Americans if they defend the University of California's rights.
The U.S. Department of Justice notified UCLA on July 29, 2025, that it had found that UCLA had "violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Chancellor Frenk subsequently announced that
"the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for federal grant terminations. UCLA faces losses of at least $584 million, funding that has supported vital research on matters ranging from treatments for pancreatic cancer to advances in online security.
The Trump Administration has made no pretense of following the law. Title VI permits a federal agency to terminate funding only if it has found that the particular program receiving that funding has violated the law's non-discrimination provisions. Funding cannot disappear just because the agency's policy or political preferences differ from the institution's.
Moreover, the agency can act only after following specific procedural steps. Importantly, Title VI requires a formal administrative hearing—a proceeding much like a trial-before the agency can terminate funding. At the hearing, the agency would have the burden of proving the university's alleged violations of Title VI before an impartial decision-maker. If the agency prevails at the hearing, the university or other interested persons could appea…

Dear President Milliken, Regents, and Governor Newsom, As faculty members of University of California law schools, we endorse Governor Newsom's commitment to resist the Trump Administration's unlawful actions taken against the University of California, Los Angeles. The Governor is on firm legal ground. The Trump Administration's termination and suspension of federal funds has violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in numerous ways. Governor Newsom and the University of California Regents will protect the vital interests not only of Californians but of all Americans if they defend the University of California's rights. The U.S. Department of Justice notified UCLA on July 29, 2025, that it had found that UCLA had "violated its obligations under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Chancellor Frenk subsequently announced that "the federal government claims antisemitism and bias as the reasons" for federal grant terminations. UCLA faces losses of at least $584 million, funding that has supported vital research on matters ranging from treatments for pancreatic cancer to advances in online security. The Trump Administration has made no pretense of following the law. Title VI permits a federal agency to terminate funding only if it has found that the particular program receiving that funding has violated the law's non-discrimination provisions. Funding cannot disappear just because the agency's policy or political preferences differ from the institution's. Moreover, the agency can act only after following specific procedural steps. Importantly, Title VI requires a formal administrative hearing—a proceeding much like a trial-before the agency can terminate funding. At the hearing, the agency would have the burden of proving the university's alleged violations of Title VI before an impartial decision-maker. If the agency prevails at the hearing, the university or other interested persons could appea…

factually supported and consistent with civil rights laws. Without the steps Title VI requires, there is no protection against an administration alleging discrimination as a pretext to force compliance with its policy or partisan preferences. Title VI's procedures guarantee the constitutional due process requirement that no person can be deprived of liberty or property without fair notice and opportunity to be heard. They protect the university and its members' academic freedom, an endowment essential to scientific research, intellectual discovery, and open debate.
We are deeply committed to the core principle of non-discrimination codified in Title VI and in the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The principle that no person may suffer discrimination because of race, color, or national origin protects equality and ensures fairness in political as well as social life. Allegations of discrimination deserve serious and careful consideration and, where established, effective redress. But this enforcement effort must follow the law.
We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California's rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration's failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government's charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial decisionmaker. It is precisely because we cherish the principles of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution that we encourage Governor Newsom, the UC Regents, and the University of California to fight back.
Through its grantmaking powers, the federal government wields vast influence over social and economic life. If not held to account by the procedural protections enacted by Congres…

factually supported and consistent with civil rights laws. Without the steps Title VI requires, there is no protection against an administration alleging discrimination as a pretext to force compliance with its policy or partisan preferences. Title VI's procedures guarantee the constitutional due process requirement that no person can be deprived of liberty or property without fair notice and opportunity to be heard. They protect the university and its members' academic freedom, an endowment essential to scientific research, intellectual discovery, and open debate. We are deeply committed to the core principle of non-discrimination codified in Title VI and in the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. The principle that no person may suffer discrimination because of race, color, or national origin protects equality and ensures fairness in political as well as social life. Allegations of discrimination deserve serious and careful consideration and, where established, effective redress. But this enforcement effort must follow the law. We urge Governor Newsom and the UC Regents to continue to stand up for the fundamental principles of the rule of law, due process, and equal protection. A defense of the University of California's rights in court will model respect for these bedrock principles of equality and fairness, and it will ensure that the government honors them. The Trump Administration's failure to abide by the law subverts these principles by denying the University of California a fair opportunity to contest the government's charges of unlawful discrimination before an impartial decisionmaker. It is precisely because we cherish the principles of the Civil Rights Act and the Constitution that we encourage Governor Newsom, the UC Regents, and the University of California to fight back. Through its grantmaking powers, the federal government wields vast influence over social and economic life. If not held to account by the procedural protections enacted by Congres…

🚨 150 University of California law professors (and counting) have now signed this open letter to the UC Regents and other officials, explaining the flagrant illegality of the Trump Administration’s UCLA funding cut offs, and urging the UC to fight back. sites.google.com/view/uclawfa...

15.08.2025 18:52 — 👍 1046    🔁 344    💬 11    📌 17

The thing is, it’s a more important piece of white American history.

15.08.2025 01:07 — 👍 2477    🔁 597    💬 58    📌 16

The mayor and the governor should be threatening now to use every newton of power they have to punish Harvard if they do this. Eye-watering state and local endowment taxes, zoning and land use, litigation, you name it.

13.08.2025 13:09 — 👍 365    🔁 101    💬 17    📌 6
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Trump administration seeking $1 billion settlement from UCLA | CNN Politics The Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles, CNN has exclusively learned, marking the latest effort by the White House to shape higher ed...

The billion dollars is the least of it. It’s universities’ autonomy, independence, and integrity that Trump is really after. www.cnn.com/2025/08/08/p...

08.08.2025 17:53 — 👍 66    🔁 31    💬 2    📌 5

Chancellor Julio Frenk is the child of German refugees who fled to Mexico from Nazi Germany. He has not been shy about addressing bias where it exists.

Meanwhile, using the pretext of antisemitism to take money away from my employer is the most antisemitic thing ever to have affected me personally.

02.08.2025 11:59 — 👍 82    🔁 29    💬 3    📌 1
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Public Records Analyst/Staff Writer in United States | The Regents of the University of California on behalf of their Los Angeles Campus UCLA is hiring a Public Records Analyst/Staff Writer in United States. Review all of the job details and apply today!

The @law.ucla.edu Behind Bars Data Project is hiring a combined public records analyst and staff writer to help us collect and disseminate data on mortality and morbidity in prisons and jails. This work has become even more pressing of late. Please share and apply! jobs.ucla.edu/jobs/8221

25.07.2025 08:09 — 👍 11    🔁 10    💬 0    📌 0
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Gaza is starving. Where are the American Jewish leaders? A fear of being labelled antisemitic still deters American Jews and Jewish institutions from taking a position that is morally correct.

The mass starvation & killing of Palestinians in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli gov’t is a chillul hashem, a desecration of God.

Jewish leaders who criticized Zohran Mamdani for three words he doesn’t use should raise their voices loudly here as well.
forward.com/opinion/7575...

24.07.2025 22:04 — 👍 9501    🔁 3415    💬 180    📌 175
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Now THAT's a cease and desist letter

14.07.2025 06:49 — 👍 36852    🔁 9574    💬 581    📌 657
Z

Z

06.07.2025 21:28 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
Rome, Open City

Rome, Open City

06.07.2025 21:23 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

The Garden of the Finzi-Continis

06.07.2025 21:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
06.07.2025 21:23 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0
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What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852) National Constitution Center Historic Documents Library record for What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? (1852)

Re-reading Frederick Douglass, “What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?” constitutioncenter.org/the-constitu...

03.07.2025 19:09 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Truly horrified by this order in way that is deeper and darker than I have felt over many truly awful merits decisions.

24.06.2025 03:02 — 👍 4482    🔁 1210    💬 172    📌 58

SCOTUS majority not deigning to give *any* reasons for staying the injunction of the district court - in the highest-possible stakes context & where the executive branch has acted appallingly - evincing real contempt for both district courts & the rule of law

23.06.2025 21:21 — 👍 3321    🔁 1007    💬 158    📌 63

DISASTROUS. This means they will send people to horrific situations with no due process — in direct violation of promises the Solicitor General made to the Court in previous cases.

This greenlights sending people to be enslaved in Libya or tortured in any random foreign country.

23.06.2025 20:36 — 👍 7375    🔁 3149    💬 299    📌 293

I have found Julius.AI to be a good tool for creating reproducible code snippets.

23.06.2025 13:56 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

I’ll say it again: It was a huge mistake for Congress to abolish itself.

22.06.2025 00:26 — 👍 25389    🔁 4295    💬 208    📌 100

incredible, they cop-tensed the possible beginning of the next world war

22.06.2025 03:38 — 👍 2493    🔁 546    💬 28    📌 12
Brad Lander: "I'll keep coming back to court, week after week"
YouTube video by Brad Lander for NYC Brad Lander: "I'll keep coming back to court, week after week"

Tonight, I'll go home and sleep in my bed. I have a lawyer, I'll get due process.

But Edgardo, whose arm was ripped from mine by ICE agents, has none of those things.

That's why I'll keep coming back to court, week after week, to make sure that people's rights are protected.

18.06.2025 01:31 — 👍 36586    🔁 7817    💬 580    📌 206
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Padilla: If this is how DHS responds to a senator with a question you can only imagine what they're doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers out in the Los Angeles community and throughout California.

12.06.2025 19:33 — 👍 39070    🔁 13714    💬 814    📌 762

“Your Honor, I have eaten bugs before”

12.06.2025 09:02 — 👍 471    🔁 122    💬 17    📌 7

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