Law and Political Economy Blog - LPE Project - Page 7

Essay

When Freedom is Illegal: Black Queer Solidarity, Poverty & Gang Policing

By Loreal Hawk, Kabbas Azhar, Kiah Duggins

The history of Check It, a Black LGBTQ+ safety network in D.C., demonstrates that when the state criminalizes survival, community empowerment becomes the most vital form of resistance.

Essay

Labor Organizing In a Time of Legal Chaos

By Alvin Velazquez

Amid growing federal attacks, public sector workers can’t count on the courts for protection. Instead, they should take inspiration from the trade unionists who organized before the passage of the National Labor Relations Act.

Essay

A Call To Defend Free Speech From Weaponized Allegations of Terrorism Ties

By Zohra Ahmed, Amna Akbar, Aslı Ü. Bâli, Corinne Blalock, Veena Dubal, Amy Kapczynski, Darryl Li, Samuel Moyn, Aziz Rana, Brishen Rogers, Shirin Sinnar, Noah Zatz

When students, staff, or faculty are accused of being associated or “aligned” with terrorist organizations, universities may be pressed to take immediate and harsh action, if only to quell media attention and appear compliant with this lawless Administration’s wishes. Universities must prepare for this possibility, learn about the underlying legal. . .

Essay

Racial Capitalism and the Assault on Federal Workers

By Marissa Jackson Sow

By purging African Americans from the federal workforce, the Trump administration does not merely aim to undermine racial integration; rather, it seeks to bring about the economic immiseration of Black communities, thereby ensuring the entrenchment of a Black American underclass.

Symposium

The “Gender Identity Industry” & Other Conspiracies

By Joanna Wuest

The Manhattan Institute’s obsessive focus on trans medicine is a part of its broader effort to erode public trust in medical professionals and federal health authorities.

Announcement

Statement from the Faculty Director of the LPE Project

By Amy Kapczynski

Last week, Yale University fired Helyeh Doutaghi, from her position as the Deputy Director of the LPE Project. Yale was Helyeh’s employer (and is mine). I was not privy to their negotiations. Her termination was not my decision, and I opposed it. I have known Helyeh as a principled and proud young scholar, far from…

Essay

Why Labor Can Defeat Trumpism

By Eric Blanc

Despite discouraging federal policy developments, unions remain well-positioned to protect workers and beat back Trumpism.

Essay

Trump’s Strategy to Undermine Court Rulings and the Rule of Law

By Maya Sen

Trump’s recent attacks on the judiciary are best understood as an effort to lay the groundwork for a gradual shift in public opinion — to normalize the idea that defying court orders is not only acceptable but maybe even expected among his base.

Rapid Roundtable

Eight Legal Experts on Trump’s Assault on Higher Education

By Jonathan Feingold, Veena Dubal, Samuel Bagenstos, Alexander Chen, Dallas Estes, Sarah Sherman-Stokes, Jeremiah Chin, Sameer Ashar

Recent executive orders have targeted federal grant funding, trans students, non-citizen students, DEI efforts, and pro-Palestinian activism. Eight legal experts explain what these orders purport to require, analyze what they actually require, and assess how colleges and universities ought to respond.

Symposium

The Political Economy of Trans Healthcare Bans

By Kate Redburn, A.D. Sean Lewis

Much as Reagan invoked the welfare queen as a diversion to absorb public outcry against devastating cuts to the social safety net, Trump today offers trans people – with their supposedly abundant, easily accessible healthcare – as scapegoats to justify a broader conservative health policy agenda.

Essay

The New Carceral Public Health Law

By Benjamin A. Barsky, Rick Weinmeyer

According to recent judicial decisions, the state can criminalize homelessness, ban abortion, and restrict gender-affirming care, all in the name of public health, yet it cannot mandate vaccines nor pause evictions. How should we understand this asymmetry, and how might we realign public health jurisprudence with the pursuit of equality?

Essay

How to Use Endowments to Protect University Missions

By Allison Tait

If endowments are fundamentally creatures of restriction, they are also in smaller measure creatures of interpretation and discretion. Universities should use what flexibility they do have to stand up for their programs, employees, and students – for the core constituents in a mission-driven environment – in this time of unprecedented assault.

Essay

You’re Paying Big Tech’s Power Bill

By Eliza Martin

By exploiting their monopolies and control over rate-setting processes, utility companies are shifting the costs of Big Tech’s voracious energy consumption onto an unwitting public.

Essay

Why Local Officials Need to Embrace a Movement-Centric Ethos

By Arti Walker-Peddakotla

In attempting to fill the policy voids created by recent federal retreat, local governments face a significant constraint: the increasing use of state and federal preemption. To confront this challenge, local elected officials and municipal attorneys need to adopt a movement-oriented approach to governing and municipal law.

Announcement

Statement on Recent Events

By Aslı Ü. Bâli, Corinne Blalock, Veena Dubal, Amy Kapczynski, Samuel Moyn, Aziz Rana, Brishen Rogers, Noah Zatz

The online targeting and harassment of the LPE Project’s Deputy Director, Helyeh Doutaghi, is part of a broader environment of speech repression, particularly of anti-war and pro-Palestinian views.

LPE Blog

Racial Capitalism and the Assault on Federal Workers

The “Gender Identity Industry” & Other Conspiracies

Statement from the Faculty Director of the LPE Project

The Political Economy of Trans Healthcare Bans

The New Carceral Public Health Law

You’re Paying Big Tech’s Power Bill

LPE Masthead