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Holly Brewer Profile picture
Holly Brewer
@earlymodjustice
Burke Prof. History UMD, historian of Justice, democracy, children, slavery, rights https://t.co/WNa4c2tKlH @GuggFellows #twitterstorian @aslhtweets Opinions mine
Apr 28, 2024 • 20 tweets • 5 min read
1. So what about that Ben Franklin quote that Trump's lawyer, John Sauer, read to the Supreme Court during the Supreme Court case on presidential immunity? Was it accurate? The words are fine, but Sauer's interpretation was deliberately misleading. Franklin would be horrified. 2.Trump's lawyers had in fact included the quote in their latest reply brief before the court, dated April 15. Here it is on page 12 of REPLY BRIEF OF PETITIONER
PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP. Image
Feb 12, 2023 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Why aren’t more journalists connecting the train derailment with the train workers’ strike last fall—which was about train engineers being forced to work on such unrelenting schedules that they were exhausted—and more likely to have accidents like this horrific one in Ohio Great interviews here.
May 4, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read
1/ Can we talk about how problematic Alito’s logic is? Alito reaches back to the 17th c. English Common law to provide a precedent for his decision, but the 17th c. judgments he cites only made abortion a crime if it happened after the child “quickens” or moves (about 20 weeks). 2/ This 17th-18th century understanding would mean upholding Roe, and disallowing Dobbs. So Alito then says the common law somehow must have made abortion illegal before quickening — without a shred of evidence.
Mar 31, 2022 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
Yep. The size of the Supreme Court was not set by the US Constitution. Nor was the length of the justices’ terms. Check it out. Go down to article 1, section 3. It does state that Supreme Court justices should serve during good behavior (not, say, at the will of the president!)—but they could still serve for a set term of 10, 12, 15 years instead of for life. constitutioncenter.org/interactive-co…
Nov 14, 2021 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Terwilliger—lawyer for Mark Meadows—is arguing that the former president and all who acted under his direction —is, effectively—above the law. And that putting the President above the law —even when promoting a coup, protects balance of power. Not history. It’s Nonsense. Post … Post opeds fail twice this week (they also pub. the Kant as CRT nonsense). Should Meadows’ lawyer be given opportunity to defend his client’s lawless refusal to appear before congress? @PostOpinions trying for new masthead “Democracy dies via propaganda.” january6th.house.gov/sites/democrat…
Feb 6, 2021 • 8 tweets • 5 min read
@Amanda_Vickery @QMHistory I looked up my husband’s mom’s SOE records in Jan. 2019 when released by the UK Nat. archives, and they were a stunner. Her kids all knew she had served in SOE but she signed an oath not to talk about it & died in 1971. She was training & ordering saboteurs in Nazi occ. France. @Amanda_Vickery @QMHistory In January 1939, age 20, she started out as a Private, as a radio operator in France. Already fluent in 3 languages, as she had grown up partly in S. America and France, by 1945 she was a Junior Commander, highest rank for a woman, & CS for SOE unit in charge of training Polish
Jan 30, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Reading this I’m reminded how Trump promoted unknown and often incompetent people to positions of great power, and judged them primarily by their loyalty to him. It’s then almost impossible for such loyalists to break away: they owe him everything. washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/ronn… In the 18th century such men (& occasionally women) who were so promoted and so dependent were called “creatures.” This pattern can be seen throughput Trump’s presidency, and was key to his power, one familiar to anyone who studies older court politics or modern dictatorships.
Jan 23, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Whether or not presidents can pardon once impeached is an open question. While some modern Con law scholars have argued that presidents should still be able to pardon & that such pardons cannot be revoked, it has never been litigated. A reflection on some 18th & 19th c. evidence For those lawyers trained to think that the “except in cases of impeachment” applies only to the impeachment of lesser officers, I note that yes, that was the older common law norm under monarchy, and is included in the clause. But the Constitution allowed, for the first time-for
Jan 19, 2021 • 15 tweets • 3 min read
I’m retweeting this one not because I agree with it, but because I want to emphasize that all of this is so speculative. What does the exclusion of the president’s inability to pardon in cases of impeachment mean? Is it only limited when the president is impeached and removed? Clinton’s pardons were allowed to stand, after he was impeached by the House—but the impeachment cause was so trivial—& they were also unrelated to the causes of his impeachment.
Jan 8, 2021 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
1. When I read this tweet from Pence’s daughter, sent during the coup attempt on January 6, which includes the excerpt about Pence’s deliberations about the history of his role under the constitution right until the last minute, I’m stunned. The history mattered. If Pence 2. Had refused to open some electoral votes, it could have been remedied in various ways, but would have meant much more chaos. The possibility was real that Pence might have been persuaded to play the role Trump wanted due to the novel scholarship of Bruce Ackerman at Yale LS
Jan 7, 2021 • 20 tweets • 3 min read
Mike Lee somehow going forward with his comments. Argues that because no state submitted two slates of electors, that the electoral votes submitted are valid. The Senate’s job is to open and count the electoral votes. He’s visibly shaking. Senator Loeffler states that she had intended to object but that she can no longer do so given the events of this afternoon.
Jan 6, 2021 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Listening to PBS —Lisa Desjardines reporting that protesters are literally breaking into the front door of the US Capitol. Not nearly enough Capitol police. They have gotten in. House and Senate have adjourned.
Jan 5, 2021 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Note the similarity in word choice between Trump’s tweet this morning Image And Bruce Ackerman’s claim in this LA Times opinion piece from September 13 . For how Ackerman’s conclusion changed since 2004 see Image
Feb 20, 2020 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
I spent the summer of 1989 earning money as a temporary secretary, to pay my way through grad school. I worked for two weeks at First Boston, for two men trained by Miliken. They explained that Miliken’s brilliance was that he figured out how to obtain companies’ pension money Companies were “overvalued” because they had so much money invested in pensions, money that could be harvested. He had figured out a loophole, a way to circumvent legal protections for pensions..