Rapid Roundtable – LPE Project

Eight Legal Experts on Trump’s Assault on Higher Education

James Brandt — Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:50:00 +0000

Since Inauguration Day, the Trump administration has waged open warfare on higher education. The speed, scope, and volume of executive orders and agency actions have been overwhelming. If the goal was to create chaos and “flood the zone,” the president has delivered. The entries that follow—which cover the administration’s assault on federal grant funding; on trans students...

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Six Biden Administration Officials on Reimagining a Progressive Future

Liz Brown — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000

Last week on the blog, Luke Herrine suggested that on the other side of the Trump-Musk hellscape – whose reforms might be so broadly unpopular as to “serve as a catalyst to productive mobilization” – there could be an opportunity for a more fundamental, ambitious rebuild of our policies and institutions. “A time of unpredictable politics is a time for non-reformist reforms,” he argued...

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Six Perspectives on Fissures on the Right

James Brandt — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 11:00:00 +0000

So your government has been taken over by a delusional King Lear figure and his billionaire henchmen, now what? One possibility is that the minority party will start using the tools available to them to delay and obstruct Trump’s brazenly illegal actions (rather than, say, tweeting about the price of pizza). Another possibility is that, after a chaotic flurry of executive orders and a ham-fisted...

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Seven Perspectives on International Law and Palestinian Liberation

James Brandt — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 11:00:00 +0000

This post is part of a symposium on movement lawyering in times of rising authoritarianism, run in collaboration with the Global Network of Movement Lawyers and Movement Law Lab). (Available also in Espanol and Português). ** ** ** In Culture and Imperialism, Edward Said posited that the remedy to a culture that preserves and advances imperialism is through the contrapuntal contributions of the...

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From the Encampments: Student Reflections on Protests for Palestine

James Brandt — Thu, 02 May 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Earlier this week, with more than 150 Gaza solidarity encampments popping up throughout the country, the national news media speculated that the protests were the result of students not having enough sex, the loss of college community, republican lawmakers taking advantage of a wedge issue, students activists operating as proxy groups for Iran, and students finally releasing their long-withheld...

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Six Reactions to the Proposed TikTok Ban

James Brandt — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, a broad bipartisan majority in the House passed legislation that would force TikTok’s Chinese parent company to either sell the app or have it banned in the United States. A platform once known primarily for goofy dances and launching Lil Nas X to fame now stands at the center of a geopolitical struggle. But what is perhaps even more surprising is how the pending legislation...

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Seven Reactions to Biden’s Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence

James Brandt — Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:00:00 +0000

This past month, President Biden issued an executive order on artificial intelligence that addresses a wide array of concerns about the nascent technology: risks to national security, the use of deceptive AI-generated content, market concentration, and much else. What should we make of this hodgepodge of directives? Does it represent a meaningful step in the right direction, or is it merely...

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Seven Reactions to Biden v. Nebraska

James Brandt — Mon, 10 Jul 2023 11:00:00 +0000

In the waning hours of its most recent campaign against a thriving modern society, the Supreme Court invalidated the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation program. Beyond directly plucking money from the pockets of tens of millions of borrowers, the decision signaled the continued willingness of the Court to substitute its own judgment for that of executive agencies and to impose its...

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Six Reactions to the Silicon Valley Bank Debacle

James Brandt — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, little known Silicon Valley Bank – the bank for tech startups and Midwestern identitarians alike – collapsed in spectacular fashion after a good ol’ fashion run on deposits. Within 72 hours, the Fed, Treasury, and FDIC announced that they would make whole all SVB depositors, whether or not their accounts exceeded the $250,000 insurance limit. Beyond revealing that many tech...

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Eight Reactions to the FTC’s Proposed Ban on Non-competes

James Brandt — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 11:00:00 +0000

Earlier this month, the FTC proposed a new rule that would ban non-compete clauses in labor contracts. This rule, which aligns with the agency’s renewed commitment to enforce the federal ban on unfair methods of competition, has received ample coverage and support in the mainstream press. Yet it also raises a host of questions – about the relationship between labor law and antitrust...

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