John Mikhail

Time Has Run Out: Mass Starvation in Gaza and the Global Imperative It is time for comprehensive, full-spectrum, sustainable, and coordinated humanitarian action. States globally must act without delay on that imperative.

The UN has determined that the “worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip.”

Alex DeWaal and @tomdannenbaum.bsky.social call for all States to fulfill their moral, legal, and basic human imperatives now by ensuring comprehensive humanitarian action.

The 2025 Cundill History Prize Longlist | Cundill Prize The jurors have chosen 15 exceptional titles to be longlisted for the 2025 Cundill History Prize.

Honored that my book is on the longlist for this year’s Cundill History Prize.

www.cundillprize.com/news/the-202...

"While Sudan’s crisis continues to escalate, it has received limited coverage in international media, and Sudan’s humanitarian collapse raises a difficult question: Why is the world ignoring Sudan?
Part of the answer lies in global attention fatigue"

#Sudan

The final contribution to the Balkinization symposium on my new book *The Oldest Constitutional Question* is by Prof. John Mikhail of Georgetown. You can find it here:

balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/why-...

@johnmikhail.bsky.social‬

Sometime soon, I'll post a response to all the symposium essays.

It's out!

The Dangerous Rise of "Dual-Use" Objects in War

Coauthored with @mararevkin.bsky.social and @azmatzahra.bsky.social.

We show that the targeting of dual-use objects over the last several decades has placed civilians at great risk.

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

Gaza worse than hell on Earth, Red Cross chief tells BBC as aid centres close for day - live updates The president of the ICRC tells the BBC's international editor Jeremy Bowen Palestinians have been stripped of human dignity.

Unprecedentedly strong intervention by ICRC. “Palestinians, she says, have been stripped of human dignity. International humanitarian law is being hollowed out. What is happening in Gaza, she says, surpasses any acceptable legal, moral and humane standard” www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cv...

Opinion | Children in Gaza Are Starving. Let the U.N. Do Its Job.

“What we need is for UNICEF and its humanitarian partners to be allowed to do our jobs.”

Read UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell’s op-ed in @nytimes.com on the urgent need to regain safe, sustained aid access to Gaza at scale. ⬇️

Birthright Citizenship and the DOJ’s Misuse of History in its Briefs Although the DOJ's briefs in birthright citizen cases might initially seem well-supported, a close look reveals that it is grasping at straws.

Focusing on eight examples from the government’s recent briefs, @johnmikhail.bsky.social argues that the Trump administration’s position misrepresents the history around #birthright #citizenship.

www.justsecurity.org/110212/birth...

The United States government arrested Rumeysa Ozturk for writing an op-ed, then defamed her with outright lies.

I encourage you to read and share the sworn affidavits linked below by the faculty and students who know her best.

She must be freed immediately.

www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

Two-thirds of both houses of Congress could undo this whenever they want by passing a bill over Trump's veto taking all power to set tariff rates away from him. Tariffs are set by law. The Constitution gives the president no power over tariffs--only our current laws do that.

Contempt, Equity, and the Boundaries of the United States Equity does not stop at the water's edge

Is there a right to defy a U.S. court order provided one does so outside the bounds of the U.S.? No, says equity whiz Samuel Bray, who’s exactly the person I was hoping would weigh in on the legalities. He says it’s straight contempt.

Some of my Columbia Law School colleagues and I offer our thoughts on legal issues with the Administration's March 13, 2025 letter to our University's president, and its threat to academic freedom. balkin.blogspot.com/2025/03/a-ti...

The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power

Important new book by my @UMichLaw colleague, @Richard_Primus, focusing on the Constitution’s allocations of power. You can pre-order here.

An unnecessary and self-mutilating attack on scientific research.

Making America Sicker and Weaker Again

The royal prerogative is a monarchist concept which was deliberately repudiated by the Constitution, a fact discussed and elaborated at some length at the convention and in the ratification debates.

“Indeed, despite its rare use, section 237(a)(4)(C) has already been found unconstitutional by a federal court” on the grounds of “‘void for vagueness,’ a violation of due process.”

Yes. And the judge who wrote that opinion was Maryanne Trump Barry - Donald Trump’s eldest sister.

This is the dark heart & power of the war on terror discourse: its capacity to magically transform political expression into terrorism, and therefore deny an entire class of speakers the right to speak. We are seeing it play out aggressively in real time right now and it is terrifying.

Listen this IS in fact how it’s done.

Georgetown Law Dean William Treanor responds to Acting U.S. Atty Ed Martin’s threat to refuse to hire Georgetown graduates who have taken “DEI” courses in their curriculum.

Treanor is a brilliant lawyer & constitutional scholar. Embarrassing for Martin.

In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu & Gallant for starvation crimes. In addition to disputing jurisdiction, Israel denied the facts, claiming it has allowed sufficient humanitarian access. Several States Parties said they won’t arrest Netanyahu.
Now this. 1/2

Please don't let the reporting about the Pentagon purge focus solely on DEI/Joint Chiefs. Firing the service TJAGs - the top lawyers for Army, Navy, USAF/Space Force - is incredibly consequential. A little context🧵on why.

The Fundamental Flaws in the Barnett/Wurman Defense of Trump’s Birthright Citizenship Executive Order "In their apparent effort to give credence to the Trump Executive Order, Professors Barnett and Wurman indefensibly ignore these core, constitutive principles."

The Fundamental Flaws in the Barnett/Wurman Defense of Trump’s #Birthright Citizenship Executive Order

by @adambcox.bsky.social, Pamela Karlan, @martylederman.bsky.social, @twmorrison.bsky.social, and Cristina Rodríguez

www.justsecurity.org/108070/funda...

Agreed. B&W are basically reading the 14A as if it said:

“All persons born…in the United States and [whose parents are] subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States….”

This isn’t good originalism/textualism, nor is it consistent with the history of birthright citizenship.

Zora Neale Hurston was born on this day, January 7, 1891. She died penniless on January 28, 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave. This passage, from her famed 1937 novel, *Their Eyes Were watching God,* seems especially pertinent at this moment. 1/

At the link below I have a 31-"tweet" thread on today's briefs filed in the TikTok case. It contains links to many of the briefs and some interlineated thoughts on what I consider to be the important or difficult legal questions. [32]

bsky.app/profile/mart...

For those not following the issue closely, I recommend this important and persuasive op-ed by @jameeljaffer.bsky.social and @genevievelakier.bsky.social on the very real First Amendment dangers of the government's effort to ban TikTok.

Sovereign Power and the Constitutional Text | University of Chicago Law School

I’m looking forward to this upcoming conference at UChicago on “Sovereign Power and the Constitutional Text.” A great lineup, addressing an array of topics, including Indian law, immigration law, extradition, and the extraterritorial application of criminal law.

www.law.uchicago.edu/events/sover...