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29 CUNY L. Rev. Footnote Forum 1 (2026)

handle is hein.journals/cunyform29 and id is 1 raw text is: THE ARCHITECTURE OF U.S. FASCISM: PART II Nina Farniat ABSTRACT In Part I of this series, I argued that the United States has always already been proto-fascist, but that today it is undergoing a transition into formal, de jure fascism. This transition is the result of a change in the class nature of the state itself In Part II, Ifocus on the legal architecture offascism. I expose rule- of-law liberalism as having paved U.S. fascism's path. I note the perni- cious role of the law in class wars, race wars, gender wars, and global wars, with particular attention on the making of a total state. I then chal- lenge the notion of an imperial boomerang that returns home from exog- enous colonies, since the United States is itself a continental empire. Functioning like afeedback loop, U.S. fascism borrows and learns from its imperial exploits and uses those tactics on the homefront, but its etiol- ogy is acutely local. I conclude with the perennial question: What Is to Be Done? ? Assistant Professor of Law, Albany Law School; A.B. University of Chicago; J.D. UCLA School of Law; Ph.D. University of California Davis. This project was produced in community, and is the result of discussions and workshops with many friends and colleagues throughout the world. Several offered suggestions on earlier drafts or commentary that strengthened it. Those individuals include Malek Abi Saab, Diego Alcala Laboy, Radhika Desai, Nick Estes, Navid Farnia, Bikrum Gill, Jeannette Graulau, Manu Karuka, Eyad Ki- shawi, Toussaint Losier, Corinna Mullin, Jemima Pierre, Issa Shivji, Eduardo Capulong, Jer- emiah Chin, Jon Feingold, Chaumtoli Huq, Cheryl Harris, Monte Mills, Kendall Kerew, An- drew King-Ries, and Maryam Jamshidi. Elizabeth Rice and David Walker of the Schaffer Law Library at Albany Law School helped procure several sources. Emily Hathaway provided ex- cellent research assistance. I am indebted to the CUNY Law Review editors-especially Haley Wen, who commissioned this series, and Ivy Girdwood, who shepherded the series through until the end-for their enthusiasm for and careful editing of the project. They provided thoughtful editorial suggestions and were truly a pleasure to work with. Finally, I am grateful to have met Prabhat Patnaik and Gerald Horne, whose incredible bodies of scholarship and important commentary greatly influenced my thinking as I wrote this series. Prior to publica- tion, I presented variations of this project at two conferences hosted by Columbia University's MESAAS Department, several AALS meetings, the UCLA School of Law workshop on race and free speech, the workshop on Imperialism: Past and Present in Bangkok, and to the Anti- Imperialist Scholars Collective in the United States. I extend my deepest gratitude to the Anti- Imperialist Scholars Collective, whose searing, urgent, and courageous analyses of our mo- ment helped to shape my own. All errors are of course mine. 1