Sam Bagenstos

@sbagen

Personal account. Personal views. Frank G. Millard Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School & Arlene Susan Kohn Professor of Social Policy, University of Michigan Ford School of Public Policy. Former General Counsel, HHS and OMB.

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Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· 25d

The quotes about Trump's voting-conspiracy-theory speech from *Republicans* in todays @notus.com newsletter are brutal.

The message Trump delivered was old, and that may have been the problem. Two GOP strategists close with the White House, supportive of Trump and the SAVE America Act both told Jasmine they were unsure why the president chose five months before the 2026 midterm elections to rehash 2020.

“Sounds like this is a speech of someone who thinks they’re going to lose in November,” one of the strategists said.

When the second strategist got a look at one of the heavily redacted documents on China accessing voter files, they simply replied, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· 27d

Interesting breakdown in this poll. (www.detroitnews.com/story/news/p...)

Stevens' strengths in the poll are with Black voters (67% to El-Sayed's 21%), non-college-educated voters (56% to El-Sayed's 34%), voters over age 55, Metro Detroit voters and traditional Democrats.

El-Sayed is getting the most support from White voters (51% to Stevens' 39%), college-educated voters (48% to Stevens' 41%), outstate voters, those under age 55 and likely primary voters who identify as Democratic Socialists.

Union households remain a competitive group, with El-Sayed pulling about 44% of support from union members and Stevens 39%. Stevens has largely dominated the race with overall union support, though El-Sayed won the backing of the powerful United Auto Workers.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jun 14

For St. Louis, this is obvious.

Ozzie Smith doing his trademark backflip.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jun 12

RIP

An old photograph of Chapel Hill's late, lamented Ramshead Rathskeller.

A photograph from the Daily Tar Heel while Sam Bagenstos was in college, featuring Chapel Hill's late, lamented Hector's.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jun 10

Warren Burger's response when a deaf lawyer asked for real-time transcription (at the lawyer's expense) when arguing before the Court (in a case about disability access!).

A memo from the Chambers of the Chief Justice on January 26, 1982, in the case of Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley:

"MEMORANDUM TO THE CONFERENCE.
"We have another 'first' under the attached material.
"Question: Is this different from a lawyer who can't understand English or who is a deaf mute and who, therefore, needs an 'interpreter' to convey our questions?
"The oral argument is for our benefit. It is not a right of a party.
"Regards, WEB."

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jun 3

Also, Justice Brennan, no! There's always a way out!

Typewritten note reading "I confess to very considerable reluctance to join your result but I see no way out. Please join me."

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jun 3

Any guesses as to what word Justice Powell thought was too "fashionable" to include in a SCOTUS opinion?

Handwritten marginal note reading "Paul -- I don't like to use this fashionable word."

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jun 3

I hope I correctly caught the "Colon Blow" allusion (and it wasn't just my twisted mind making it up).

Phil Hartman perched atop a mountain of bowls of Colon Blow cereal.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· May 30

The second passage, from this piece by Jack Lessenberry: open.substack.com/pub/jackless...

We desperately need better leadership than this. We need someone who can both inspire us and get it done. Instead, we are likely to have Benson, who thinks she is the smartest person in the room, which in an academic sense she may be, but who seems to have forgotten how normal humans communicate.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· May 30

The first passage, from this piece by @meganwachspress.bsky.social : www.liberalcurrents.com/aoc-for-pres...

Here is the thing about being a woman, and especially a woman in a position of public authority or attention: You do not get to be a genius, the hero. These are not cultural tropes or roles readily available to women. When is the last time you heard a woman in politics or just in your profession, described as “charismatic”? “Brilliant”? “Ambitious”—in a good way? It is vanishingly rare for a woman leader to be perceived sufficient-unto-herself, the reason for which other people take action. For women in politics, even being seen is dangerous.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· May 20

Seems like Scarface-style work.

Al Pacino saying "Don't get high on your own supply."

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· May 9

Jeb! always made me think of this old ad (made famous at the end of South Park, but I remember the original):

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· May 5

Words, what do they mean?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters Tuesday morning that the U.S.-Iran ceasefire is holding, even as both sides have fired at one another in the last day.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· May 4

Obviously you wouldn't agree with everything Hannah Arendt said or thought, but it's striking how much she got right so long ago. What she wrote in 1967 here seems even more apt today.

"While probably no former time tolerated so many diverse opinions on religious or philosophical matters, factual truth, if it happens to oppose a given group's profit or pleasure, is greeted today with greater hostility than ever before."

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Apr 30

Thanks, Trump.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Apr 28

Hey, @lollardfish.bsky.social , look what I just got in the mail! Hoping to get some tips.

Blonde headed guy in glasses holding a copy of The Public Scholar by David M. Perry.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Apr 27

Hey, @mirandayaver.bsky.social , look what I'm reading!

A white guy in glasses holding a copy of the book Coverage Denied by Miranda Yaver.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Apr 27

Just outside of Hamilton, Ontario, this morning, I snapped what's probably the most Canadian photo I'll ever take.

Two police officers mounted on very tall horses in front of a donut shop with a sign shaped like a maple leaf and containing the word "Tim's."

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Apr 13

Thanks for nothing, Trump.

87 octane gas pump reading $4.05 and 9/10 per gallon.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Mar 28

Great turnout at Ann Arbor No Kings!

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Mar 27

Outstanding result! The Michigan Court of Appeals rules that the Wayne County Board of Canvassers shouldn't have thrown out 37 ballots in the Hamtramck mayoral election. Important case vindicating the fundamental right to vote. www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ph3mx....

eturning to Southfield Ed Ass'n, 320 Mich at 378, we find that plaintiff and the 37 voters
who cast their ballots had a clear legal right to have them appropriately considered under the
Michigan Election Law and defendant had a clear legal duty to perform the acts required by that
law. The act of so marking the ballots as challenged pursuant to Gracey is ministerial and does
not involve discretion or judgment. Finally, no other legal or equitable remedy exists that might achieve the same result. Thus, the trial court abused its discretion by failing to grant the writ of
mandamus and failing to order the Board of Canvassers to have the 37 ballots subjected to the challenged voter procedures of MCL 168.745 as required by Gracey.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Mar 23

Super excited to get on my own flight right now.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Mar 18

From my personal guide to Byrd Rule precedents, a heading that I always find jarring when my eye passes over it.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Mar 16

This is the crucial piece.

Of course, the federal government can run deficits, unlike California. But that doesn’t mean that federal policymakers can simply ignore the question of where the money for a social democratic safety net would come from. Unfortunately, I think the left is probably going to need to become more attentive to that question in the coming years. Creating enormous new social programs without funding them through taxes is a recipe for inflation—and we’ve seen how voters respond to inflation, even when it’s more than offset by wage growth. Further, the next president is going to have to deal with a truly dire fiscal situation: a massive hole in the federal budget thanks to Trump’s tax cuts, a federal bureaucracy that is in tatters, and an international community that has lost faith in a US-centric global financial system. In the face of these pressures, I don’t see how we can sustain (1) a truly comprehensive social insurance system, (2) low taxes for all but the wealthiest Americans, and (3) a stable dollar. At best, we can have two out of three.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Mar 7

Great turnout at the Washtenaw County Dems today, notwithstanding the steady rain.

A bunch of people sitting in a room listening to a speaker.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Feb 25

Good to see that ICE has signed on to the Abundance Agenda.

ICE will be able to bring these facilities online far faster than expected thanks to another unprecedented action. Back in October, the Trump administration began funneling OBBBA detention funding through the Department of Defense and the U.S. Navy’s procurement system, known as the Supply Systems Command. The use of the military procurement system allows the federal government to essentially bypass the normal bidding process involved in most federal contracting.

At the time, the apparent intent was to use this funding to open up soft-sided tent camps on military bases. The funding for this was to be funneled through a military procurement system known as the Worldwide Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract (WEXMAC), which had primarily been used for international contracting. Now that system has been expanded and repurposed to be used to support DHS for mass deportations (known as WEXMAC Territorial Integrity of the United States, or WEXMAC-TITUS).

Under WEXMAC, companies can be “pre-qualified.” Once pre-qualified, the government can issue task orders without going through any normal bidding process. On Friday night, the Trump administration quietly announced that private prison giant The GEO Group had been added to the WEXMAC-TITUS list of pre-qualified vendors, along with several other companies which specialize in things such as “turnkey workforce housing and temporary shelters [and] large-scale camp construction,” “rapid-deployment staffing solutions” and “protective services and secure detention transport operations.”

In other words, ICE is now able to tap into the entirety of the $45 billion to award contracts to private prison operators and other contractors to start work on the warehouses it has purchased almost immediately, without any normal bidding process, and with potentially far less transparency than normal.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Feb 25

Plus a selfie.

Blonde guy in sunglasses in front of the inside of the dome of the Pantheon in Rome.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Feb 25

One I took almost exactly a year ago.

A photo of the inside of the dome of Rome's Pantheon.

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Feb 8

In appropriations law tomorrow, I'm teaching the necessary expense rule. (Nerdy!) The reading includes my favorite footnote in the GAO Red Book.

Everyone loves a good animal case. Unfortunately, the animals in most GAO decisions are dead or, as in the cases cited in the text, soon to become dead. Readers interested more in amusement than precedent might also check out 7 Comp. Gen. 304 (1927) (removal of a horse “found dead lying on its back in a hole”); 18 Comp. Gen. 109 (1938) (another dead horse); B-86211, July 26, 1949 (death of hogs allegedly caused by being fed garbage purchased from Navy installation; it was pointed out that other hogs had eaten the same government-furnished garbage and managed to survive); B-47255, Feb. 6, 1945 (burial of three dead bulls); B-37205, Oct. 19, 1943 (mule fell off cable swing bridge); A-92649, Apr. 22, 1938 (still another dead horse); B-115434-O.M., June 19, 1953 (agency borrowed a bull from another agency for breeding purposes, then had it slaughtered when it became vicious); 70 Comp. Gen. 720 (1991) (rate of fish migration measured by fisherman returning government fish tags—from fish presumed dead or to have at least had a very bad day); but see B-318386, Aug. 12, 2009 (agency devised plans to help save endangered ducks being targeted by hunters due to a deadly case of mistaken identity). Insects do not escape either. See 34 Comp. Gen. 236 (1954) (grasshopper control in national forests).

Sam Bagenstos@sbagen· Jan 30

I have a paper (in part) about this! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....