{"id":4452,"date":"2025-11-03T19:27:42","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T00:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/?p=4452"},"modified":"2026-01-27T18:19:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T23:19:41","slug":"the-accelerating-assault-on-minority-rights-in-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/2025\/11\/03\/the-accelerating-assault-on-minority-rights-in-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"The Accelerating Assault on Minority Rights in Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"color:#9b373f;\" class=\"has-link-color wp-elements-a21d3441d30aa6b84f64bd93413a43f0 wp-block-post-date has-text-color\"><time datetime=\"2025-11-03T19:27:42-05:00\">November 3, 2025<\/time><\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Republican Majority Leader John Thune took to the Senate floor to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2025\/09\/11\/republicans-invoke-nuclear-option-push-change-senate-rules\/\">weaken the filibuster<\/a> on September 11, 2025, it was not just another sign of partisan acrimony in Washington. It was also the latest example of what may be developing into one of the most accelerated trends in a generation to curtail the rights of the minority party in Congress. These rights are critical to the ability of the House and Senate to deliberate, negotiate, forge bipartisan consensus, and hold the executive branch to account. This escalating assault on minority rights diminishes Congress as an institution and degrades its ability to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-becc31c60eb69b40d6b8a5c390db42dd\" style=\"color:#9c343b\"><strong>Going Nuclear<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In legislative parlance, Thune amended post-cloture debate procedures to allow the Senate to confirm sub-Cabinet-level nominees as a group (<em>en bloc<\/em>) rather than through the more time-consuming process of debating and voting on each candidate individually. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thune.senate.gov\/public\/index.cfm\/2025\/9\/thune-republicans-reverse-course-on-democrats-historic-obstruction\">argued<\/a> that Democrats were engaging in unprecedented obstruction of President Trump\u2019s nominees by forcing cloture votes and using full debate time even for routine candidates instead of allowing some to advance more quickly by unanimous consent or voice votes, which was the practice in previous administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Democrats responded that many of Trump\u2019s picks were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.democrats.senate.gov\/newsroom\/press-releases\/schumer-historically-bad-nominees-deserve-a-historic-level-of-scrutiny-by-senate-democrats\">historically bad<\/a>. To their point, several nominees were forced to withdraw after more searching inquiries into their backgrounds and qualifications. These included Ed Martin, Trump\u2019s nominee for D.C. U.S. Attorney who embraced January 6 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/01\/29\/ed-martin-jr-jan-6-defendants-00201269\">conspiracy theories<\/a>, Karen Brazell, Trump\u2019s nominee for Veterans Affairs Under Secretary for Benefits who was involved in aggressive agency <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/10\/08\/pick-to-oversee-va-benefits-withdraws-nomination-00597982\">staffing and contract cuts<\/a>, Matt Gaetz, Trump\u2019s initial choice for Attorney General whose candidacy unraveled amid a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/2024\/nov\/21\/matt-gaetz-withdraws-ag-nomination\">torrent of accusations<\/a>, and most recently Paul Ingrassia, Trump\u2019s nominee to lead the Office of Special Counsel whose <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/5564522-paul-ingrassia-osc-democrats-demand-nomination-withdrawal\/\">racist text messages<\/a> led Democrats to call for his withdrawal. In these and other cases, scrutiny from the minority helped empower the full Senate to do its job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, holding up nominees is one of the few time-honored levers that Senators in the minority use to obtain needed information or to prompt negotiations on substantive priorities. In this case, Democrats <em>were<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2025\/08\/03\/nx-s1-5491414\/senate-confirmations-trump-schumer\">negotiating<\/a>. They offered to clear nominees in exchange for reversing some of Trump\u2019s unprecedented withholding of funds appropriated by Congress. But Trump scuttled those negotiations in a <a href=\"https:\/\/truthsocial.com\/@realDonaldTrump\/posts\/114961522912167613\">social media post<\/a> calling the minority\u2019s approach \u201cpolitical extortion\u201d and telling Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to \u201cGO TO HELL!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Thune indeed abandoned negotiations and, with this procedural maneuver, invoked the so-called \u201cnuclear option.\u201d The majority quickly confirmed <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5543863-senate-gop-trump-nominees\/\">107 nominees<\/a> with simple majorities in two subsequent votes. But they did nothing to stop Trump\u2019s campaign to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/2025\/08\/29\/trump-cancels-international-aid\/\">wrest<\/a> the power of the purse from the Legislative Branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Admittedly, Democrats changed the filibuster in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brennancenter.org\/our-work\/analysis-opinion\/why-senate-went-nuclear-filibusters\">2013<\/a> when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid reduced the threshold to a simple majority for lower-level executive and judicial nominees, which he also claimed were being unfairly stalled in unprecedented ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell famously responded in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/04\/06\/us\/politics\/neil-gorsuch-supreme-court-senate.html\">2017<\/a> by invoking the nuclear option for Supreme Court nominees, and Trump named three Justices during his first term. In addition, in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2019\/04\/03\/709489797\/senate-rewrites-rules-to-speed-confirmations-for-some-trump-nominees\">2019<\/a>, McConnell reduced debate time on non-Cabinet nominees from thirty hours to two, speeding up the process but still allowing Senators to force individual votes. This is what Thune just changed with his <em>en bloc<\/em> maneuver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-853b694c70188c9462ebdfeff800d8d6\" style=\"color:#9c343b\"><strong>A Broader Trend<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What makes the majority\u2019s recent actions different is that they are part of a more sweeping trend across both houses of Congress to aggressively limit the minority\u2019s rights by changing, skirting, and openly flouting the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the Senate, this was not the first time this year the majority bypassed the filibuster; it was the third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In May, using the process established by the Congressional Review Act for disapproving agency rules with a simple majority, Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/05\/22\/climate\/senate-republicans-electric-vehicles-california.html\">struck down<\/a> California\u2019s plan to phase out gasoline powered cars. They took this action despite a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/products\/b-337179\">Government Accountability Office<\/a> finding that California\u2019s plan was not a \u201crule\u201d under the law and should have been subject to the filibuster\u2014a conclusion the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/politics\/congress\/senate-republicans-trigger-clash-filibuster-eyeing-vote-nix-electric-v-rcna208061\">Senate Parliamentarian<\/a> supported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in June, Senate Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/senate-debate-trump-one-big-beautiful-bill\/\">narrowly passed<\/a> Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill using the reconciliation process, which requires only a majority vote. To avoid the filibuster, reconciliation bills may not increase the deficit beyond a ten-year budget window. Yet the majority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/02\/us\/politics\/republicans-senate-rules-tax-cuts.html\">bypassed<\/a> this requirement by adopting a <a href=\"https:\/\/democrats-budget.house.gov\/resources\/fact-sheet\/current-policy-baseline-explainer\">\u201ccurrent policy\u201d baseline<\/a> that disregarded trillions of dollars in deficits by <a href=\"https:\/\/kjk.com\/2025\/07\/02\/byrd-blindside-republicans-end-run-around-senate-rules\/#:~:text=Traditionally%2C%20the%20Byrd%20Rule%20prohibits,the%20%E2%80%9Cnuclear%20option%E2%80%9D).\">pretending<\/a> expiring tax cuts were extended indefinitely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This trend extends to committees as well. In July, Senator Cory Booker moved under Judiciary Committee Rule 4 to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/committee-activity\/hearings\/executive-business-meeting-07-17-2025\">postpone a vote<\/a> on circuit court nominee Emil Bove so the Committee could obtain testimony from a whistleblower who disclosed that Bove directed prosecutors to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2025\/07\/10\/politics\/justice-department-ignore-court-orders-emil-bove-erez-reuveni\">ignore court orders<\/a>, but Chairman Chuck Grassley ruled Booker\u2019s motion out of order. Although Republicans claimed Democrats did the same thing in the previous Congress, in fact then-Chairman Dick Durbin <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/committee-activity\/hearings\/11\/30\/2023\/executive-business-meeting\">held a recorded vote<\/a> to overcome the minority\u2019s Rule 4 motion, while Grassley refused to hold any vote at all in this more recent exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Democrats <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/dear-god-democrats-storm-out-vote-controversial-trump-nominee\">walked out<\/a> in protest as a result. They pointed out that the purposes of these rules\u2014the reasons they were created in the first place\u2014is to foster deliberation, allow members to represent the views and interests of their constituents, promote compromise and consensus, and exercise the oversight power of Congress by obtaining critical information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-link-color has-medium-font-size wp-elements-e55b7a1581f878c5579b12830de8bfe1\" style=\"color:#9c343b\"><strong>An Even Starker Trend in the House<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The majority in the House has been curtailing minority rights at an even more rapid pace, including when it comes to obtaining information from the executive branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In April, Republicans <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/29\/us\/politics\/house-republicans-trump-information.html\">blocked<\/a> dozens of Democratic \u201cresolutions of inquiry,\u201d including those seeking information about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth\u2019s Signal chats regarding classified military strikes on Yemen. Under House rules, if a committee does not act on such a resolution within 14 \u201clegislative days,\u201d a motion on the floor must be considered before other business. Republicans worried they might lose the Hegseth resolution vote in committee (one GOP member had already called on Trump to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2025\/04\/21\/don-bacon-recommends-firing-hegseth-00301057?ref=rawdiary.com\">fire<\/a> Hegseth, and others faced competitive races). So House leaders avoided the mandatory floor vote by simply <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/04\/28\/congress\/house-rules-signalgate-pete-hegseth-00314755\">declaring<\/a> the entire five-month period from April 29 to September 30 a single \u201clegislative day,\u201d effectively freezing the 14-day clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Members had hoped resolutions of inquiry would make a comeback in October when this prohibition expired, but the majority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/119th-congress\/house-resolution\/707\/text\">quietly extended the prohibition<\/a> through next Spring on their way out of Washington ahead of the government shut-down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>House Republicans also blocked a resolution championed by Democratic Rep. Brittany Peterson and Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna to authorize members to vote by proxy if they are <a href=\"https:\/\/19thnews.org\/2025\/03\/proxy-voting-congress-discharge-petition\/\">new parents or are pregnant<\/a> and have health conditions affecting their travel. Under House rules, if a measure has been stuck in committee for more than thirty legislative days, it may be \u201cdischarged\u201d and brought to the floor when a majority of members signs a petition, as they did here. Yet Republican House leaders used a procedural maneuver to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2025\/04\/01\/congress\/house-proxy-voting-anna-paulina-luna-00262949\">kill<\/a> this discharge petition because it was backed primarily by Democrats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another prominent discharge petition supported mainly by Democrats (and some Republicans) would require the Justice Department to finally turn over its full file on Jeffrey Epstein. It was about to get the <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/5520512-massie-grijalva-epstein-petition\/\">final signature<\/a> it needed to force a vote on the floor when Republicans shut down the House and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/10\/06\/us\/politics\/adelita-grijalva-house-epstein.html\">refused to swear in<\/a> Adelita Grijalva, the latest Democrat to win a special election to the House. It\u2019s been weeks since she overwhelmingly won, yet Speaker Mike Johnson is forsaking his constitutional responsibility to the House and the 800,000 citizens of Arizona who are without representation, as retired Republican Rep. Mo Brooks recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.al.com\/politics\/2025\/10\/house-republicans-step-on-thin-ice-as-they-ignore-the-constitution.html\">pointed out<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, when Republicans took the House in the previous Congress, they sought to restrict the so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/5\/2954\">seven-member rule<\/a>,\u201d a federal law enacted in 1928 that requires agencies to provide information requested by any seven members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Although the statute explicitly delegates authority to a minority of committee members, the majority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justsecurity.org\/84739\/setting-the-board-congressional-investigations-and-the-new-house-rules-package\/\">added a provision<\/a> to House rules requiring that one of the seven signatories be the committee chair. The goal was obvious: give the majority power to shut down the minority\u2019s access to information under this law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are many other examples. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/03\/11\/us\/politics\/trump-tariffs-house-gop-vote.html\">March<\/a>, House Republicans blocked a Democratic-led effort to override Trump\u2019s tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China under the National Emergencies Act, which requires committee consideration of resolutions ending presidential emergencies within fifteen calendar days and a floor vote within three days after that. But House Republicans passed a provision <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/house\/5189410-house-gop-democrats-repealing-trump-tariffs\/#:~:text=House%20GOP%20blocks%20Democrats%20from,DelBene%20said%20in%20the%20statement\">declaring<\/a> that each day for the rest of the year \u201cshall not constitute a calendar day\u201d for purposes of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They used similar word games to prevent a vote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/09\/us\/politics\/house-republicans-trump-tariffs-vote.html\">April<\/a> to block Trump\u2019s emergency declaration to impose <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/livecoverage\/trump-tariffs-trade-war-stock-market-04-03-2025?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AWEtsqco88-Ru7QuQWo6gTet35UpZxhIH3FgbmtEaCmQu9iUzkWQS4lf2Q-IFhDQN_s%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68f3b99c&amp;gaa_sig=91Kg0kNYqO-bv1To9GOn1VBSp9XTuYBhrGDbVEmhRQkcvR6vVHZWUkzYzR4A_O6wg48PsZbSOK-kSOqJ5nRySw%3D%3D\">global tariffs<\/a> and to prevent a vote in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/09\/16\/us\/politics\/republicans-house-tariffs-emergency-trump.html#:~:text=House%20Republicans%20extended%20a%20maneuver,head%20off%20a%20similar%20vote\">September<\/a> to block tariffs imposed on Brazil after Trump\u2019s ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/07\/31\/world\/americas\/trump-brazil-tariffs-lula.html\">convicted<\/a> of plotting a coup after he lost his election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And in a stunning development, the current House majority just broke the record for the most bills ever considered with no amendments allowed on the floor. According to the House Rules Committee, the majority has already adopted more \u201cclosed rules\u201d during this Congress than in any previous year in history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This feat is even more incredible considering that Speaker Johnson <a href=\"https:\/\/firstbranchforecast.substack.com\/p\/the-speaker-who-silenced-the-house?utm_source=post-email-title&amp;publication_id=3302839&amp;post_id=176606087&amp;utm_campaign=email-post-title&amp;isFreemail=true&amp;r=2rc8bl&amp;triedRedirect=true&amp;utm_medium=email\">adjourned the chamber<\/a> weeks ago for the shut-down and hasn\u2019t allowed a single vote since. As a result, the House hasn\u2019t conducted any oversight of administration actions that some Republicans also question, such as military strikes against alleged drug shipments without congressional authorization. As Rep. Adam Smith, the top ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.yahoo.com\/news\/articles\/house-democrat-declares-mike-johnson-011148797.html\">warns<\/a>, \u201cMike Johnson has effectively dissolved the United States House of Representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Bigger Picture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are certainly many examples of Democrats curtailing minority rights when they were in power. In addition to Senator Reid\u2019s change to the filibuster in 2013, House Democrats previously restricted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2021\/09\/22\/politics\/democrats-limit-house-gop-investigations-biden-administration\">resolutions of inquiry<\/a> and the minority\u2019s ability to offer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/crs-product\/R48566\">motions to recommit<\/a> measures to committees with \u201cinstructions\u201d that sometimes posed political problems for certain majority members. And Republicans may recall a controversy forty years ago when the Democratic House majority <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/politicaljunkie\/2009\/04\/on_this_day_in_1985_dems_thwar.html\">seated<\/a> Democrat Frank McCloskey instead of Republican Richard McIntyre after several recounts, causing a GOP walkout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the actions of the current majority suggest an across-the-board escalation in curtailing minority rights. What\u2019s different at this historical moment is the pace and scale of these changes across both houses, and they are not yet through the first half of the 119th Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So why is this happening?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>One reason is that the President is fueling caustic hyper-partisanship. He compels combativeness among his followers and celebrates disdain for both the minority and its participation in the legislative process. This approach, which <a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5360131\">scholars<\/a> have deemed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/02\/08\/opinion\/political-hatred-negative-partisanship.html\">affective polarization<\/a>,\u201d breeds distrust and brinksmanship, and it impairs collaboration and negotiation when they are needed most, as the current shut-down demonstrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It also has the effect\u2014even when there is collaboration\u2014of blocking what a majority of members wants. Minority rules allow all members to propose and advocate for measures that might gain enough support from both sides to pass. But the current Republican leadership would rather jettison minority rights, abandon negotiations, and block even bipartisan measures that Trump opposes. They allow Trump to defy laws that he claims don\u2019t (or shouldn\u2019t) apply to him. And knowing they have a once-in-a-generation trifecta of unified government in Washington, they engage in opportunistic \u201cgo for broke\u201d abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The current majority seems determined to hasten Trump\u2019s slide into authoritarianism, \u201cmarked not by a single dramatic event but the slow corrosion of our ruling institutions,\u201d as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/magazine\/archive\/2025\/11\/autocracy-resistance-social-movement\/684336\/?gift=lViDY6exVftAhtHzwK__nzX2ayRwXYAkK6Eua9m9BXI\">David Brooks<\/a> puts it. The purpose of the Constitution\u2019s division of powers is to ensure the nation will never be subservient to a sovereign. Thomas Jefferson feared the consolidation of unchecked authority through \u201celective despotism,\u201d and James Madison warned that the accumulation of government powers in the same hands \u201cmay justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet Republican leaders are allowing their fealty to the President to erode the Framers\u2019 vision for their institutional role. Operating at the direction of the President to block bipartisan measures and deprive members of information, Congress risks losing its ability to ensure that the Executive Branch is faithfully executing the laws Congress passes. This imperils the Constitution\u2019s system of checks and balances that is essential to the functioning of our democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/faculty\/dave-rapallo\/\"><em>Dave Rapallo<\/em><\/a><em> is an Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Federal Legislation Clinic at Georgetown University Law Center, and he served for more than 20 years in high-level positions in Congress. Professor Rapallo is currently working on an article for Volume 63 of the H<\/em>arvard Journal on Legislation<em> entitled,\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5907347\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Mapping Minority Investigative Powers in Congress<\/a><em>. You can read his current draft\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5907347\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Republican Majority Leader John Thune took to the Senate floor to weaken the filibuster on September 11, 2025, it was not just another sign of partisan acrimony in Washington. It was also the latest example of what may be developing into one of the most accelerated trends in a generation to curtail the rights of the minority party in Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[52],"class_list":["post-4452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-markup","tag-dave-rapallo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZQ7o-19O","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/jol\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}