My forthcoming review in Political Theory of @richardprimus.bsky.social's The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power has been posted online.
"The book is truly a model of constitutional argument," and it is a magnificent achievement.
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Book Announcement!!!
Sidewalk Nation: The Life and Law of America’s Most Overlooked Resource is available for preorder and out June 2 with @harvardpress.bsky.social!
a.co/d/0d1DwIVc
My friend & colleague @nelsontebbe.bsky.social has an Article on "First Amendment Inversion," just recently published by the Texas Law Review. It documents a fascinating and important shift in how different political groups have conceptualized free speech: texaslawreview.org/first-amendm...
Almendares on Unitary Enforcement
Nicholas Almendares (Indiana University Maurer School of Law) has posted Unitary Enforcement on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Enforcement is an essential part of law. Yet, increasingly Congress has no say over it. A full-throated embrace of the unitary executive…
Jotwell on Rachel Bayefsky, Tradition versus Equality: A feminist intervention - Equality equality.jotwell.com/tradition-ve...
Very pleased to report that our Article, "Untangling AI Liability," co-authored with the great Cathy Sharkey of NYU Law School, will be published in the California Law Review. For those with access, you can find it on SSRN here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
First contribution to @knightcolumbia.org’s new initiative on “Reconstructing Free Expression” is from @jamalgreene.bsky.social—and it is exceptionally insightful and worth reading. knightcolumbia.org/blog/free-ex...
The weekly roundup from @lpeblog.bsky.social is here - lpeproject.org/blog/weekly-..., and it flags some exciting new work by Prof. @lauraportuondo.bsky.social (which I learned about at the fantastic recent ALPE conference) [1/2]
Francus on Purdue Pharma and Statutory Interpretation
Michael Francus (University of Virginia; University of Notre Dame - Notre Dame Law School) has posted The Truth About Consequences: Purdue Pharma's Lessons for Statutory Interpretation on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court's opinion…
My latest article with the one and only @spenceroverton.bsky.social called “Digital Ethnonationalism” forthcoming in University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Here is the papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
My latest, "Free Exercise and the Redistribution of Liberty," is now posted (and forthcoming in @yalelawjournal.bsky.social). It argues that free exercise doctrine uses selective market logic to redistribute both public resources and liberty itself.
Comments welcome: papers.ssrn.com/abstract=618...
Ahdout on Political Mootness
Payvand Ahdout (University of Virginia School of Law) has posted Political Mootness (111 Va. L. Rev. 841 (2025)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Congress and the executive have engaged in major clashes over the scope of their powers, particularly involving Congress's…
As part of @yalelawjournal.bsky.social’s new online Supreme Court review, my latest focuses on Catholic Charities. I ask about the role of religious motivation in granting exemptions and in limiting state support for religion — and why it matters for one but apparently not for the other.
Hugely important piece by @mblawrence.bsky.social on the future of GAO and why you should care. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/is-t...
Helpful thread below -- after listening to the en banc argument in Roake v. Brumley, a few more impressions: (1) it's hard to overstate how badly CA5 conservatives want to reverse the panel that invalidated laws requiring display of the 10 Commandments in public schools /1
My colleague @amandafrost.bsky.social is excellent on this panel about birthright citizenship. Her response on what sources to read to understand the issue (at ~1:14) — as compared to the other answers given — is notable. @uvalaw.bsky.social
www.youtube.com/live/scYYIy9...
Payvand Ahdout, Leslie Kendrick and Rachel Bayefsky
Dean Leslie Kendrick ’06 joined the awards ceremony recognizing Profs. @payvandahdout.bsky.social and @rachelbayefsky.bsky.social for their research in civil procedure at @theaals.bsky.social annual meeting Wednesday.
The Ninth Circuit today holds that religious organizations have a First Amendment right to discriminate based on religion in hiring/firing non-ministers. The panel grounds its decision in the “church autonomy doctrine,” which the Supreme Court recognized for the first time in 2020. /1
I discuss these issues at length in Disestablishment at Work: yalelawjournal.org/article/dise...
Many more cases on the way.
h/t @zalmanr.bsky.social
news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-...
Loper Bright prompted a tidal wave of reaction throughout the legal community when the Supreme Court announced it was overruling Chevron, the most frequently cited Court decision in administrative law. But Loper Bright cannot mean what it says. This article identifies three respects in which the majority opinion’s claim to have overruled Chevron distorts the real substance of the Court’s logic. First, we apply Loper Bright’s framework to the facts of Chevron and show that it would have produced the same outcome—if nothing else, an exceedingly curious result if Chevron were indeed overturned. Second, even as applied to other cases, the Loper Bright framework does not truly depart from the Chevron framework. Chevron’s premise was that Congress had delegated the authority to interpret an ambiguous statutory term in an agency’s enabling statute to the agency. Loper Bright may eschew the word “deference” but without changing the underlying analysis. We show that this kind of wordplay is of little value in making institutional decisions about the allocation of authority. Finally, the very craft of the Loper Bright opinion betrays the perils of the exercise that Loper Bright demands of reviewing courts. Loper Bright instructs judges to identify the “best reading” of administrative statutes, suggesting that an even-handed exercise in recovering semantic meaning can identify extant lines of authority in the administrative state. But the decision rests on an interpretation of the Administrative Procedure Act that is itself selective and slipshod. Ultimately, Loper Bright’s formalist rhetoric turns out to mask what is going on under the hood. When judges substitute their views of what is “best” for those of agencies, arguments about statutory meaning can quickly succumb to choices about policy. Avoiding such an outcome, of course, was one of Chevron’s core aims.
My new article with @cary-coglianese.bsky.social, titled "Loper Bright's Disingenuity," has been published in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. We argue that, even as the Loper Bright decision claimed to overrule Chevron, it preserved Chevron's core.
pennlawreview.com/2025/12/23/l...
I don't think there's any understanding of the First Amendment under which this ("our Savior") is constitutional. Yet they don't care, and they've eliminated all the attorneys who would've objected.
Kudos to the Goldwater and Cato Institutes for condemning it.
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/25/a...
The Supreme Court signaling that Mahmoud may extend beyond curricular opt-outs. We anticipated this move in the vaccine context in our recent comment, @richschragger.bsky.social and @nelsontebbe.bsky.social, harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13....
Prof. @rachelbayefsky.bsky.social has won @theaals.bsky.social Junior Scholarship Award for her article “Judicial Institutionalism.” Prof. @payvandahdout.bsky.social earned an honorable mention.
Pleased to share that, last week, the UH Law Faculty voted to grant me tenure.
I’m grateful to my colleagues across the academy, my mentors, friends, and especially my family for their support along the way.
Since postliberalism is having another moment where people seems to be confused about what it is, here are a few papers that might be helpful:
1. The intellectual energy comes from Catholic integralism — for an early critique, see digital.sandiego.edu/sdlr/vol56/i...,
White speech bubble on dark background. Headline reads “breaking news.” Subheadline reads “Court of Appeals Affirms Most of Decision Holding Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois Liable for Exclusions in Self-Funded Plans”
NEWS: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit today issued a decision broadly affirming most of a decision holding Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois liable for its administration of discriminatory exclusions in self-funded plans.
Read our full statement: lambdalegal.org/newsroom/cp_...
Wonderful! No surprise that I'm not the only one who realizes the utter fabulousness that is @daniellecitron.bsky.social
Grateful to my amazing colleagues at @uvalaw.bsky.social for the whole ride getting to this point. For the advice, listening, and most importantly, friendship.
The Supreme Court had three religious freedom cases last Term. With @richschragger.bsky.social and @nelsontebbe.bsky.social, our latest comments on them, extending our analysis of religious preferentialism under the First Amendment.
harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
Out today in HLR, my piece Skrmetti Beyond Scrutiny. What happened, what it means for trans rights and sex equality more broadly: harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
