Walter Olson's avatar

Walter Olson

@walterolson.bsky.social

2020 followers 482 following 1372 posts

Writer on law etc.; @CatoInstitute. Blogged Overlawyered 1999-2020. Election law, Maryland civic stuff.

Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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It was very, very bad. My two cents here: www.cato.org/blog/court-w...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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In Will Baude’s view, a generally principled Court leaned over backward this term to rescue Donald Trump from what it saw as ill-handling by other parts of government. Too bad it bent its own constitutional principles along the way.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Is Trump’s talk of military tribunals for political opponents seriously meant, or mere bait for the rubes? Pretty grim either way.

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Reposted by Walter Olson

Andy Craig's avatar Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social
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If you want the straight scoop on this from the nation's #1 unquestioned, encyclopedic knowledge, GOAT expert on every possible obscure detail of state ballot access laws, Richard Winger is it:

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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At face value it'd seem you'd need a constitutional amendment. In practice I think if the majority faced a sufficient outcry among persons they respected, they might trim or retreat on one or another point -- though that might come too late to vindicate the public interest in this case.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Now up: my thoughts on Trump v. U.S. In my view the Court majority went much too far in creating a zone of formal and practical presidential immunity from criminal prosecution. "This is not what the Framers wanted. It is not what we should want either." www.cato.org/blog/court-w...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Watch: I'm part of a Vote Nevada panel discussion on misconceptions about ranked choice voting, with Vote Nevada's Sondra Cosgrove and Doug Goodman. (1:23:36, I come in at 37:45) www.cato.org/multimedia/m...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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With less of a check on presidential criminality than many of us had been counting on, it becomes all the more important not to elect a brazen criminal to the presidency.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Team Evidence of Our Own Eyes has been thrown onto the defensive over the last day or two. (Although it’s not clear there is any such team.)

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Confirming the intuitive: when people are lied to about elections supposedly having been stolen, they become more willing to countenance political violence. Those who falsely portray lawful elections as stolen bear a heavy moral responsibility.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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"You can't make me certify election results" lawsuit from Georgia county official may serve to create a welcome court precedent that yes ma'am, you do have to certify [Derek Muller]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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"It is precisely because we are in a 'hair-on-fire moment' that I think institutional reform to eliminate partisan primaries is such a high priority" [Ned Foley]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Does (did?) Chevron encourage Congressional inaction? With notes on the changing equilibrium of administrative law [Gus Hurwitz]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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"How did the [Libertarian] party get here, to a place where its chair is openly cheering on victory for the decidedly nonlibertarian Trump?" Liz Wolfe digs in.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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"Plaintiff Accused of Being 'Litigious' Sues for Slander" [Vermont; he lost.]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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"Today’s reading will result in the narrowing of some charges against [some] January 6 defendants. In no way, however, should it be viewed as a license for lawlessness. In nearly all cases, especially the serious ones, the rioters face other charges not at issue here." /2, end

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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"When there is genuine uncertainty as to the meaning of a law, judges help safeguard liberty by applying a narrow reading to avoid criminalizing conduct not clearly marked out as such. That is what the court did today." My take on J6 rioter case Fischer v. U.S. www.cato.org/blog/fischer...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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The New York Times tried to tell us about Biden's age problems. In response it got slagged by the some of the folks who believe, against all likelihood, that the Times "actually, secretly wants Donald Trump to win the election." [Joel Mathis]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Have Donald Trump and MAGA/Jan. 6 defendants gotten harsher-than-normal treatment from the criminal justice system? Radley Balko documents many ways in which they've gotten gentler-than-normal treatment

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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My guess is that the authors share a wish to see Trump (as do you, Cathy, and I) and recognize that Biden is on a path to failing in that assignment.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Getting a pass from whom? Most of the people in this conversation are passionately against Trump.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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First of many such articles? “Biden is simply no longer fit to be the Democratic nominee. For the good of his country, and his own well-being, he must open the field for someone else.” Short essays by Quico Toro and Sam Kahn in Persuasion www.persuasion.community/p/the-night-...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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This all is what I was really saving my liquor collection for.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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If anyone still sees Elon Musk as some sort of free speech devotee, @andycraig.bsky.social has a definitive demolition of that notion for @theunpopulist.netwww.theunpopulist.net/p/elon-musks-statist-road-to-free-speech

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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In the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case, a Supreme Court majority chose an individualist rather than a consequentialist view of legal rights. New from me at Cato: www.cato.org/blog/high-co...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Come for the modern history of the Confrontation Clause (Antonin Scalia, protagonist) and stay for examples of how AI is getting pretty good at figuring out which judge probably wrote which opinion [Adam Unikowsky]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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“The government was not given any new rights to do anything today.” Thanks Will Oremus at the WaPo for quoting me on the implications of today's Supreme Court decision in Murthy v. Missouri, on social media jawboning. www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Making the ground vibrate in certain ways causes earthworms to come to the surface, and from that, a north Florida subculture was born.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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I will always remember the defeated Rep. Bowman as the guy who was a school principal for ten years and still thought it was okay to pull the fire alarm.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Code Pink's going after the Pico-Robertson synagogue has actually succeeded in making me think worse of the Chinese communist propaganda machine.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Joe Biden boasted of bypassing the Supreme Court's ruling on debt cancellation. Now two Obama-appointed judges have ruled against him on the issue - on the same day.

I miss the days when presidents would at least pay lip service to being bound by law. reason.com/volokh/2024/...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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This song was part of my discovery of music as a child but I had never seen any images connected with it.

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Omri Marian's avatar Omri Marian @omrimarian.bsky.social
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Why protest in front of a synagogue?

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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“Unpleasant things will have to be done to hold people to account,” notably judges and prosecutors in the Trump cases. A Claremont Institute publication “is letting us know an orgy of revenge is coming. We should believe them.” [Joel Mathis] joelmmathis.substack.com/p/the-americ...

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Lion’s mane mushrooms from a local grower with home-cured bacon, early onion, parsley and tomatoes.

This is Steve’s second successful batch of home-cured bacon. The mushrooms, aside from being tender, have a gentle, mild flavor. #foodsky

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Per the Court, the Second Amendment permits disarming individuals found by a judge to "pose a credible threat to the physical safety of others." But in California, a restraining order can be based on annoyance and emotional distress. That wouldn't fit the bill. [Eugene Volokh]

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Reposted by Walter Olson

Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
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The whole blind mule thing has always pissed me off. At the midpoint of my prosecutorial career, when I was in a senior unit but still pulled some meat-and-potatoes cases, I got a case of an old Vietnamese man caught at LAX with a bunch of decorative slippers with heroin in the soles. /1

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Reading Gorsuch's dissent in Diaz v. U.S. from the majority's green-lighting of expert testimony on what most people's state of mind is in a situation🔥🔥

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Reposted by Walter Olson

Popehat's avatar Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social
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I really love the Court’s logic in this. “Look he didn’t testify that ALL Belgians is criminals. He just said that MOST Belgians is criminals. So it’s not, whatayacallit, discriminatory.”

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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France's crop of young party leaders [Michael Behrent, Discourse Mag]

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Psychiatric diagnosis "shapes the people it describes. It models social identities. It offers scripts for how to behave and explanations for one’s interior life." Manvir Singh essay/book review in the New Yorker

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Reposted by Walter Olson

Andy Craig's avatar Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social
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There is no such role, there never has been, and this constitutional fact is also now explicitly codified in federal statute (ECRA). The state legislatures have *no* power whatsoever over the presidential election after election day. State law as it stood on election day is what governs, period.

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Walter Olson's avatar Walter Olson @walterolson.bsky.social
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Lunch at desk: tomato, almond and parsley soup, a dish with Greek roots. On the side: leftover cornbread. #foodsky

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