Rick Hills

teaching in China, interested in federalism, localism

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

In light of “Gulf of America,” Trump’s being logically consistent here: He names places after the power that controls them.

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

@ProfSchleich @JerusalemDemsas @ericlach @freedlander @dwallacewells @powellAtlantic @hanlonbt @CSElmendorf @EconDerek @RickPildes @emmagf @jbarro @mattyglesias @reihan @poozer87 @ezraklein @annemariegray @henrygrabar @YAppelbaum @apmechan @aarmlovi @alykatzz @narosenblum @mnolangray @greg_shill @ericgoldwyn @eric_kober @GregDavidonNY @emilymbadger @dylanmatt @mossmitchell @Richard_Florida So Myrie has zero chance? ☹️

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

“Martin’s nomination was derailed after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a member of the Judiciary Committee considering the nomination, balked at [Martin’s] views on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.” How’re Pirro’s views any better than Martin’s? https://t.co/3AWSebVyIA

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

Anyway, the piece might have interest for transportation/local gov’t wonks like @henrygrabar @greg_shill @jonorcutt @bfurnas @Komanoff and admin law folks like @jadler1969 @nicholas_bagley @davidckamin @Jennifer_Nou

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

Here’s why Sean Duffy cannot block MTA’s congestion pricing scheme. TL;DR: A deal’s a deal. USDOT cannot rescind on a whim the contract that USDOT made w/ NY. As for Duffy’s threats to cut off grants unless NY surrenders, that’s unconstitutional extortion. https://t.co/6Up9I0ytzY

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

@GrahamGreeneEsq Realpolitik might motivate a narrow remedy (eg, no nationwide injunction, just relief for the importer who sues). Unless SCOTUS is ready to declare that statutory standards raise non-justiciable political questions, however, it is hard to duck and cover here.

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

@nicholas_bagley @stevenmazie IMHO (emphasis on humble here — only experience will reveal how voters will react to different sorts of executive defiance), defying a direct order from a court will be much more salient to voters than executive “interpretation” of a precedent to permit executive action.

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

@bfurnas If only there were some way to get City government to compare costs and benefits of proposed decisions rather than assume that any cost incurred from change automatically requires reversion to a stupid status quo. https://t.co/MUhVKgZ4ka

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

“…’every DOJ attorney is required to zealously advocate on behalf of the United States. Any attorney who fails to abide by this direction will face consequences,’ Bondi said.” But DOJ’s defiant stone-walling loses cases: That’s incompetent, not “zealous.” https://t.co/n04LbMksbQ

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

Just curious: Do I have TDS? Because it strikes me as really weird that a DOJ attorney just told a judge that their client (DHS) refuses to give adequate answers to the attorney’s requests for information or follow the attorney’s advice? https://t.co/dEDohhTf5p

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

This weird line in Trump’s EO is a tell that MAGA folks really believe in and care about whiteness and blackness. The idea that “race is not a biological reality but a social construct” was the mainstream “color-blind” conservative view prior to MAGA.

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

In case you were wondering, yes, foreign intel can crack Signal’s encryption and monitor Signal texts. That’s how European police have busted drug gangs. Our govt’s discussions of war plans are visible to any hostile power w/ a half-decent intel operation. https://t.co/Tekfj1idvy

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

Trump’s top-level defense team accidentally included a journalist on a Signal text chain discussing plans to bomb the Houthis. They were counting on an encryption app to safeguard nat’l security, but they didn’t double-check the recipient list. https://t.co/L7xfby4T7C

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

DHS apparently based decisions to abduct Venezuelans and send them to El Salvador prison on guesses about the meaning of tattoos and sign language. As @IlyaSomin and @steve_vladeck note, procedural due process, was totally absent here: Kafka couldn’t concoct such buffoonish evil.

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

@NeysunM Thanks Neysun! BTW I’d have listed more people, but I don’t know their twitter handles, so feel free to suggest more folks I can bug.

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

My essay on Xi’s move away from the Hu-Wen regime’s more liberal brand of authoritarianism. Hypothesis: China’s inability to systematize the CCP’s succession of leadership impedes the CCP’s ability to protect dissenting voices and free flow of information. https://t.co/CjLF1yBkp3

[Rick Hills @RickHills2]

Theoretical Inquiries has given me 2 months for substantive revisions, so I’d appreciate feedback from both China experts and political theory folks like @ZhangTaisu @MargaretKLewis @NeysunM @stasavage @jtlevy @yuenyuenang @rorytruex @mollyeroberts @onglynette @mattinglee