Tyler Rose Clemons
@TyRoseClemons
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St. John’s Law Professor. Scholar of power, history, and U.S. constitutional law. Rt = interest or amplification, not endorsement. I am also Mississippi.
New York, USA
Joined March 2009
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At long last, Coercive Ideology is officially published in
@MdLRev
!
This article is the product of ~7 years of wrestling with the Equal Protection Clause and the problem of racist government expression.
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What strikes me about the Chemerinsky incident is the blurring of the line between private/personal and public/official. This was not a private dinner party with loved ones but a quasi-official event the dean of a law school chose to host in his home.
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Student journalists fighting back tears on air as they realize NYPD will occupy their campus until after the graduate.
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Of course the dean had every legal right to insist the student leave, as he would in a campus building. But suddenly reimposing the social norms and rules of the private space to control guests’ behavior at a quasi-public event seems unfair.
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This is yet another example of what
@ProfMMurray
, Khiara Bridges, and others have described as the Court’s increasing prioritization of white feelings over substantive harm to Black and other nonwhite people.
Throughout Alexander v. NAACP, Alito is extremely concerned about the possibility of a state action being called racist and not concerned at all with the possibility of a state action *being* racist
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Finally: This act of protest makes me deeply uncomfortable. But acts of protest that are polite and convenient are also easily ignored. Justice is the ultimate kindness.
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This kind of over-familiarity—which seems to be especially prominent on the West Coast—can elide very real power differentials while doing little to shift them. A more extreme example is a Fortune 500 CEO insisting that a cashier call him by his first name.
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It also strikes me that the private forum was part of the student’s message—that is, that the protest targeted in part the idea that the dean of an American law school could meet with students in this manner as friend or social host rather than as dean.
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@GeauxGabrielle
This reminds me of Drakulic’s “How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed.” As she says, “the trivial is political. Oppression is felt in, and made of, the mundane.
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Which is not to suggest that Dean Chemerinsky and Professor Fisk were motivated by anything more than kindness, nor that their eventual shock and frustration are not understandable. But this is more than “Someone invaded my home and refused to leave.”
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Thrilled to announce that I’m joining the faculty of
@StJohnsLaw
this fall. I’ll be teaching Evidence and Constitutional Law.
So grateful for my time with
@NYULaw
’s Lawyering Program and excited about this next step!
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I got a tenure-track position at a well-regarded NYC law school this year. I received multiple offers.
To my knowledge, I am one of the first—if not the first—openly trans woman to do so.
Being a trans woman has always required strength. Now our power is growing. Watch out.
@graceelavery
1. The hatred, mockery and contempt are nothing new.
2. The difference is there are more of us and people can step back to look after themselves and not worry that necessary work isn't being done and
3. More of us means more beautiful talented people in the world.
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Taught my final class of 1L Lawyering at
@nyulaw
today and my students surprised me with these. Overwhelmed with gratitude ❤️
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(1) All of this is true.
(2) Step 3 adds another layer of gatekeeping that keeps all but a handful of underprivileged folks out.
My three years at NYU were lovely, but they left my finances in shambles and I barely scraped by—and that’s as a single woman with no kids.
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Whenever anyone asks for a book on trans women or trans issues generally, this is the first book I recommend. It was also pivotal to my own coming out and transitioning.
for
#TransDayOfVisibility
consider ordering a copy of the new 3rd edition of
#WhippingGirl
(w/new Afterword on the current anti-trans backlash) for a 20% discount through my publisher
@SealPress
using this link & promo code: SERANO20
#TDoV
#TDOV2024
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@OrinKerr
Neagle deals with state criminalization of “acts which [federal officials] were authorized or required to do by the Constitution and laws of the United States[.]” It doesn’t say that federal officials get out of state prisons for crimes that have nothing to do with their office.
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I saw Prof. Baradaran give this year’s Derrick Bell lecture at NYU a couple months ago and have been eagerly awaiting this book ever since. Can’t wait to read!
It's publication day friends!!!! Please read and join me in a quiet counter-coup.
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@OrinKerr
I don’t think there’s any grounds or procedure for that. And wouldn’t it trample all over Younger (and other abstentions)?
I think this would be a 25th Amendment situation. The President can’t fulfill his duties due to incarceration; therefore VP serves until he can.
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@UglaStefania
Utterly shocked that women who dilate don’t randomly share that very intimate fact with “friends” who publicly suggest that doing so makes them “not a woman.”
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@Lavernecox
@Dannii_Taylor
I work in criminal justice reform in DC. Your portrayal of Sophia has added trans issues to my agenda.
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Maria Shriver Talks Sexual Abuse in Women’s Prisons with
@OINTB
Author
@Piper
| MSNBC:
http://t.co/Jrt6KOpLQL
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Pointing out that someone doesn’t have the legal right to perform an act of civil disobedience is not the flex you think it is.
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@nrookie
@divafeminist
Exactly. Poverty is always used as evidence of deviance for Black people but mitigating evidence for white people.
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Anyone drafting sign-on letters from law/faculty in support of the students at Columbia/USC?
If so please send my way: tyler.rose.clemons
@nyu
.edu
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This is getting lots of traction. A few points in lieu of individual responses:
1. My point here is about framing. Characterizing the incident as a personal attack by a guest on their hosts at a private dinner party is at best imprecise and at worst harmful.
What strikes me about the Chemerinsky incident is the blurring of the line between private/personal and public/official. This was not a private dinner party with loved ones but a quasi-official event the dean of a law school chose to host in his home.
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3. My point is not that professors and administrators should not interact socially with their students, including in their homes. But when we do so, the onus is on us to remain mindful of the power differentials that we carry into those spaces—regardless of intent.
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Thrilled to announce that I have accepted an attorney position in the Dallas office of the U.S. Dep’t of Educ’s Office for Civil Rights.
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Injustice will persist as long as we classify humans as either just innocents or unjust perpetrators. Real justice requires all of us constantly to interrogate our own complicity in systems of oppression and maintain willingness to be held accountable and change.
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@AnthonyMKreis
There is pro-Trump bias here, sure, but also a clash between the fictions of our constitutional system and the reality of the two-party system. One wonders whether the Court would be similarly hesitant if a Dem were disqualified.
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Honored by the opportunity to add my name to this letter. I will continue to speak up for students and speech and against carceralism and genocide.
Letter to NYU President Linda Mills from a number of NYU law faculty in response to arrest of student and faculty demonstrators.
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@OrinKerr
I think the other protections I mentioned (immunity for presidential acts squarely within official duty, 1st Am protections against vague/viewpoint based laws, and due process) make that scenario extremely unlikely. But if we do get to that state, we are already in deep trouble.
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This book by
@MattRKay
is a must-read for educators of any subject at any level. More pertinent now than ever.
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To clarify: All the fellowships/VAPs of which I am aware pay half (or less) of starter tenure-track salary.
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Watched this happen in the nonprofit space as well, at a nationally known and well-respected office. It’s death by a (hundred) thousand (daily) cuts.
What I do know about academia is that when we hire Black professors, institutions often drive them out through a combination of overwork, adding massive amounts of uncompensated work off contract, and infinite microaggressions.
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There’s no better time to subscribe to Chris’s work than right before the June SCOTUS rush. His reporting is clear, thorough, thoughtful, and fast.
I'm 2,000 words into a story involving hundreds of pages, in dozens of documents, over multiple years.
It's an important story — worth the time and money I'm putting into it. But I can only do this b/c of you.
Subscribe to Law Dork to support my work:
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@AlexMcDaniel
HE LITERALLY HAD A BUTTON ON HIS DESK SO HE COULD LOCK HIS DOOR.
A button. On his desk. So he could lock. His door.
You know. To prevent women from escaping. And to prevent discovery.
HOW MUCH MORE PREDATORY CAN YOU BE?
/rant
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I wish I had the courage of these students when I was at UM. I hope I have this much courage now.
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Interesting idea from my former boss.
A 20-Year Maximum for Prison Sentences: Marc Mauer of
@SentencingProj
|
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.
@SenWarren
just broke down how racism is used to divide the poor to preserve wealthy power. Y’all listening?
#DemsInPhilly
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I have so much to say about what happened at U Mississippi yesterday. So much context, of my own story.
So much that it’s rendered me silent—especially as my current institution decided to sic cops on my students again this morning.
But I will tell it. One day I will tell it.
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@LissaJoStewart
Not to mention the figurative books the Islam could stand on! Algebra, the preservation of Greek literature, the university system, incredible architecture, etc. Muslims were doing these things when Christians were actively deleting knowledge in the Dark Ages!
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I was in the room with OJ a few years ago at a relatively small panel discussion on criminal legal reform in New Orleans. He was charming, audacious, clearly reveling in attention.
My host asked if I wanted to be introduced to him. I said no.
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Listening to justices who voted to deny cert in McKesson yesterday express First Amendment concerns in the January 6 prosecutions speaks volumes about this Court’s First Amendment selectivity.
It’s not just about speech, but *whose* speech, to say *what,* and *when.*
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.
@Lavernecox
on
#OrangeIsTheNewBlack
has revolutionized my thinking about trans* women and the issues they face--especially in prisons.
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Today and every day. And the other trans women—many of them Black and brown—who paved the way for me.
May I be just as fearless in paving the way for those who come after me.
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“Drag queens have always been keepers of our queer history.”
YAASSSS,
@sasha_velour
.
#DragRace
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Shafik has called for NYPD to maintain a presence on the Columbia campus until May 17, two days after graduation.
Not just an invasion but an occupation.
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4. The private nature of one’s home does not magically erase those power differentials. If it did, public officials could abuse their private residences—say, a resort club in Florida—to exercise unwarranted control over public scrutiny and criticism.
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5. Finally and most importantly: I will not tolerate any form of antisemitism or Islamophobia on this thread or anywhere else on my feed.
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What you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, not turquoise, not lapis. It’s actually cerulean.
Without saying the name, what's a movie that is instantly recognizable based on one quote?
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4(a). Again, I am not implying that Dean Chemerinsky and Professor Fisk meant to do this. It is the post-hoc framing of the incident as “I ordered her to leave my private home and she didn’t, so I am right and she is wrong” that is harmful.
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@ClaraJeffery
I have an op-ed draft on the Va school board's restoration of Confederate school names last week. It synthesizes my article in
@MdLRev
showing how Confederate monuments contribute to racial subordination: .
DM for pitch?
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I hated wearing glasses as a child. I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to wear contacts.
I love buying glasses now. I love the shapes, the colors. It’s deeply affirming.
Transitioning saves lives in big ways, but also in a thousand little ways. Every day.
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WKCR reporters being escorted off the premises by NYPD. No one being allowed to observe or document what police are doing in protester-occupied building at Columbia.
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Nightly reminder that the people with the “gender ideology” are the ones who believe that who you are, whom you love, what you wear, what you like, how you speak, what you think, where you work & etc. is determined by your genitalia.
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@OrinKerr
I agree. I just don’t think they need an automatic “Get out jail free for four years” mechanism from otherwise legitimate convictions to keep that from happening.
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The single most important book on racism—and thus on America—that I have ever read.
Fields, B. J., & Fields, K. E. (2022). Racecraft: The soul of inequality in American life. Verso Books.
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I met many of these folks during my tenure-track job search during the fall. Every one of them deserves a substantial pay increase.
Every university has a single, underappreciated mid-level admin person preventing its immediate collapse
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@JuliaSerano
There is a proud generation of incredible young trans femmes coming up who are going to change the world.
It’s my honor and privilege to stand up for them as my elders did for me.
Again: Watch out.
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Shopping.
Me: You know, camo is really in right now.
Mom: So is heroin but I don’t do that either.
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@corinneblalock
Leveraging privilege against itself is a powerful form of solidarity. In spaces to which I have access due to privilege, I constantly try to think about ways to make space for those who are excluded or (if not possible) at least to communicate their viewpoints.
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An easy, logical extension of Bostock.
In Bostock v. Clayton County (2019), SCOTUS held, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity IS discrimination on the basis of sex. While employment law was the focus in that case, I said then that courts will extend
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“Orwellian” means the contortion of language leading to the contortion of ideas leading to the abuse of human beings
— Shami Chakrabarti
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Imagine regarding the fact that the obvious justice of a protest draws people to it as somehow discrediting the protest instead of validating it.
The vast majority of people arrested at university protests were students, staff, and faculty. But even if they weren't: universities get vast tax breaks because they are considered a public good. Some (like CUNY) are public property. They *should* be be open to the public
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@yuvrajjoshi
You are so prolific even with a teaching load! Can’t wait to see what you produce with space and time to focus on writing.
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Iconic.
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Breakfast restaurant is playing Melissa Etheridge’s Fearless Love so basically today is going to be a good day.
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Actually it’s a song about the inadequacy of Congressional funding for the National Flood Insurance Program, but most kids aren’t on Jack’s level.
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Rule No. 1: Don’t be boring.
Rule No. 2: Know who Ruth Bader Ginsburg is.
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To be clear, I stand on the shoulders of giants:
@JuliaSerano
, Marsha Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Dee Farmer, and countless others whose names I’ll never know.
I am where I am because they weathered the vitriol and refused to be cowed. I owe them not just my career but my life.
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So are we ready to upgrade Hurricane Trump to a Category 4 constitutional crisis yet?
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Visiting home is having to turn on Mozart to edit a paper because my mother is upstairs listening to Instagram reels of a talking bird on repeat.
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Y’all are still going with this tiki torch mess? K.
People are mocking white nationalists for marching with literal tiki torches
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Lovely visit to
@NYBG
this afternoon. We missed the peak of the daffodils but the azaleas and cherry blossoms are still showing out. And we saw a pileated woodpecker!
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This right here. I went to the Queens Pride parade today mere blocks from where they shut down the street to hold the prayer service for Eid every year. There’s a Buddhist temple on one corner and a Colombian bakery on the other.
We’re all just people. We live together.
a Jewish guy in Brooklyn once politely asked me, an extremely sweaty post-soccer brown man, if I could go inside his apartment and flip a switch because it was Shabbat. I did it and he offered me a popsicle but I said no thanks. NYC baby
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@dem8z
So sorry. I’ve been dealing with loss too and return to Mary Oliver’s words:
To live in this world, you must be able to do three things:
To love what is mortal
To hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it
And, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
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Whoa. This.
“
@MichaelSkolnik
: Dear
@DineshDSouza
, You know who'll never be "a grown-up Trayvon Martin"?
Trayvon Martin.”
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A fundamental tenet of common law jurisprudence—one championed by conservative jurists until *checks watch* very recently—is that judges should develop important rules gradually rather than “making a rule for the ages.”
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You know it’s getting real when you go get tested for each other. Officially smitten.
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Go work with my absolutely fabulous (soon to be former, alas) colleague,
@eliseconstance
!
Michigan State has just advertised a tenure track position in public law
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If my new straight roommate doesn’t know I’m gay already, he will by the end of this playlist.
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1(a). This point is necessary to rebut the use of statements such as “This wasn’t the place” or “These weren’t the people” to condemn the student’s protest without engaging with its substance.
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My timeline is full of alternating images of celebrities at the Met Gala and bombs falling on Rafah.
It reminds me of The Hunger Games.
It reminds me of the montage of Moon River playing over footage of nuclear testing.
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My daddy just randomly texted me, “I’m a blessed man to have a son like you. I love you.”
Wow. Tears.
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Hair, skin, nails, clothes, makeup—it takes so many resources. It doesn’t just “happen.”
The fact that some of us choose to invest our resources that way is fine. But the fact that others make different choices is not a comment on their character.
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This is your friendly daily reminder that two hyphens are a woefully inadequate substitute for an em dash. Carry on.
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GIFs are one painfully Millennial thing I refuse to relinquish.
I’m ready for old school gifs to make a comeback. Bring back the gif of that white ginger kid looking surprised I say. Or that Black woman walking through the door. All Schitts Creek gifs are back on the table.
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@em_quinones
@Ruth_Mensch
Don’t. In my experience (with Themis for Maryland and Barbri for Louisiana), they assign WAY too much. Get in four solid hours of studying per day and you’ll be fine.
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Slept until 11. Breakfast in bed, iced coffee, Tracy Chapman, reading, and Zelda. Yes.
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