The Law Dork Nine: Daniel Nichanian

Daniel, aka Taniel, shares with Law Dork his thoughts on state and local government accessibility and elections, but also about French political theorists — and Irish drag!

I first met Daniel Nichanian in person years after I had been closely following his work online as Taniel on Twitter. As anyone else who follows him knows, everything he does to inform the public about elections — and their real stakes — is the perfect mix of obsessive and essential.

It’s exactly who he is in person, a constant stream of energy and intelligence. Of course, as I’ve been lucky enough to learn over time, Daniel is a lot more than that — as kind a person as he is smart an analyst.

We had the opportunity to work together at The Appeal, and we even wrote something together — redlining then-attorney general Bill Barr’s speech to the Fraternal Order of Police’s conference in 2019.

Then, a few months before I launched Law Dork in 2022, he launched Bolts — a must-read publication for people who care about state and local elections (and a publication to which I’ve contributed in the past).

Who better to propel The Law Dork Nine into the election season, I thought, than Daniel? (Now with his full name at Threads — but still at Taniel on Bluesky!)

With the season in full swing — ballots are already out the doors of elections offices in multiple states — Daniel is hard at work, but he took some of his time this past week to answer The Law Dork Nine!

1. How do you wish to be identified for this?  

Daniel Nichanian, though some of you may know me just as Taniel on social media.  

2. What is your work?  

I’m the editor and founder of Bolts: We’re a digital publication that launched in early 2022 that covers the nuts and bolts of power and political change, from the local up. We report on the institutions, people, conflicts, and organizing that shape policy on two topics where local governments are of paramount importance: criminal justice and voting rights.

3. How does it relate to the law? (If this is obvious, feel free to skip it— or have fun with it.)  

Covering the nuts and bolts of local politics is so relevant to the law! That’s where a lot of the law is made (e.g. where an obscure committee assignment in a senate can derail criminal justice reform for years). It’s where criminal laws are enforced—and, of course, local officials from DAs to sheriffs have wide discretion over what that looks like. And it’s a big part of where it’s interpreted, and that means it’s critical to track the weeds of state judicial elections or appointments, including odd state loopholes, that shape court rulings years down the line).