Tessera

“My fear is that this is going to be another notch in a long list of decisions that are threatening to our broader country and democracy, leaving states without the ability to do much on very flimsy and poorly reasoned legal grounds.” —Prof. @profrrothschild.bsky.social grist.org/accountabili...

States want to make Big Oil pay for climate harm. Now, courts are weighing in.

New York’s climate “superfund” law has suffered two losses in court, while a U.S. Supreme Court case next week could determine the fate of similar efforts nationwide.

grist.org

Happening now at Michigan Law: The Environmental & Energy Law Program Conference: "Responding to Federal Retreat: Reimagining Environmental and Energy Law in the Great Lakes Region" Panel I: AI and the Great Lakes Region: Energy, Innovation, Development More info: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Panel of Moderator: Oday Salim, Adjunct Clinical Assistant Professor of Law, Director, Environmental Law and Sustainability Clinic, Co-director, Environmental and Energy Law Program, University of Michigan Law School
Helena Voltzer, Senior Source Water Policy Manager, Alliance for the Great Lakes
Michael P. Vandenbergh, David Daniels Allen Distinguished Chair in Law; Director, Climate Change Research Network; Co-Director, Energy, Environment and Land Use Program; Vanderbilt University Law School
Sue Shink, Michigan State Senator, District 14
Dan Scripps, Commissioner and Chair, Michigan Public Service Commission

Michigan Law #MorningRead The Institutions of Exceptions: Justification in Trade and Investment Treaties By Professor @aratojulian.bsky.social in the Michigan Journal of International Law repository.law.umich.edu/mjil/vol47/i...

Abstract
International economic law binds states in the interest of liberalizing markets, including in cross-border trade in goods and services (trade) and capital (investment). The treaty regimes for both trade and investment do this by disciplining states through legal rules, while preserving a modicum of governmental authority over domestic policy. The preservation of policy space in these regimes usually involves a process of exceptions-based justification – through formal exceptions clauses in most trade treaties and some investment agreements, and also through informal exceptions-style reasoning by adjudicators in the investment treaty regime more generally. This “exceptions paradigm” of justification has worked well in the trade regime, especially in the WTO where it has been key to securing a justifiable and legitimate balance between market disciplines and regulatory autonomy. But ex post justification has been less successful at striking a tolerable balance in the investment regime, even when formally codified in an exceptions clause. This article seeks to explain why that is, by focusing on the institutions within which exceptionsbased justification is embedded. Key institutional differences between these regimes help explain the varied success of the exceptions paradigm in trade and investment, in particular: the right of action (private vs public); the degree of judicial centralization (ad hoc arbitration vs court system); and the available remedies (retrospective compensation vs prospective injunctive relief). I argue that it is trade law’s public-oriented institutions that have made the exceptions clause workable – not the other way around. By contrast, investment law’s private-oriented institutions make that system particularly inhospitable to exceptions-style justification.

Michigan Law #EveningRead Preserving Both Agency Expertise and Accountability in the Unitary Executive By Professor @chrisjwalker.bsky.social in @ssrn.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Abstract
In response to the Supreme Court’s increasingly unitary executive approach to presidential power, this symposium essay sketches out a vision for the administrative state that preserves both accountability and expertise in regulatory governance. In particular, it makes the conservative case for a professionalized civil service—one with meritocratic hiring and firing practices—that operates within a politically accountable structure. This argument may cut against the “deep state” narrative on the political right, but it reinforces traditional conservative values of protecting liberty and preventing government overreach as well as promoting innovation and free markets through fostering more effective, efficient, predictable, and stable regulatory environments.

This vision is not new. It is the “standard model” Congress embraced in the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946. Nor is it unconstitutional under the Roberts Court’s unitary executive precedents or inconsistent with the Court’s formalist approach to separation of powers. Indeed, last Term, in Kennedy v. Braidwood Management, a 6–3 majority confirmed that this vision for regulatory governance that “preserves both expertise and accountability” is “fully consistent” with separation of powers. As such, even after the Supreme Court overrules Humphrey’s Executor this Term in Trump v. Slaughter, one should resist the parade of horribles that the unitary executive theory’s next target is the civil service. The Court answered that question the Term before in Braidwood. In so doing, the Braidwood Court preserved Congress’s ability to structure executive branch institutions that ensure the political chain of accountability while allowing the agency to leverage the expertise of a professionalized civil service.

Alliance for the Great Lakes @alliancegreatlakes.bsky.social · 5d ago

“I thought Climate Week was a great opportunity to bring some of that material out of the Law School classrooms and into a more public-facing environment,” Korn said. “The law impacts everyone, and our ability to communicate it to the public is so important.” michigan.law.umich.edu/news/climate...

For Climate Week, a Walk through Climate Law | University of Michigan Law School

During Climate Week 2026 at the University of Michigan, which runs from September 26 to October 4, a series of exhibits placed around the Law Quad delves into how the law affects the environment and t...

michigan.law.umich.edu

Join us on Oct. 2 in Ann Arbor! Two Alliance for the Great Lakes experts, Helena Voltzer and Meleah Geertsma, will join the conversation on AI, energy, innovation, and environmental justice at @umichlaw.bsky.social Free & open to the public. RSVP to join us! https://bit.ly/46Sg7rj

Don Moynihan@donmoyn.bsky.social · 5d ago

New from our neighbor at @fordschool.bsky.social, Professor @donmoyn.bsky.social:

One thing DOGE did was bring attention to the fact that there was another model for how tech could interact with government - one which was more people-centered and ethical. Here is an effort to sketch out the history of that movement, which I think will be relevant again in the future (Open access)

Join us tomorrow for the EELP Conference: Responding to Federal Retreat—Reimagining Environmental and Energy Law in the Great Lakes Region 📆: Friday, October 2, 2026 🕑: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM 📍: Jeffries Hall 1225 More info: michigan.law.umich.edu/events/eelp-...

Michigan Law #MorningRead The Future of Environmental Law Amid the Destruction of Science by Professor @profrrothschild.bsky.social on @ssrn.bsky.social papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Essay in the Harvard Environmental Law Review's Symposium Issue on the Future of Environmental Law One Year into Trump; responding to Richard Revesz's Inverted Positions: The Trump Administration’s Concerted Effort To End the Use of Regulatory Benefit-Cost Analysis.

Michigan Law @umichlaw.bsky.social · 6d ago

Michigan Law #EveningRead The President and the Power Grid —Professors Alexandra Klass & Dave Owen (@uclawsf.bsky.social) in @michlawreview.bsky.social michiganlawreview.org/the-presiden...

The President and the Power Grid - Michigan Law Review

There is a sharp discontinuity between the second Trump Administration’s electricity policies and those of previous presidential administrations. President Trump has directed the Department of Energy ...

michiganlawreview.org

Today at Michigan Law: MLaw Matters: Debating the Abundance Movement with Professors @chrisjwalker.bsky.social, @nbagley.bsky.social, @noahkazis.bsky.social, Alexandra Klass, and @sbagen.bsky.social

A panel of the listed professors sit in front of a packed Jeffries Hall classroom

Michigan Law @umichlaw.bsky.social · 6d ago

Michigan Law #MorningRead Contemporary Issues in Black Philosophy: Pluralism in Methodological Approaches by Professor Daniel Fryer et al. scholarlypublishingcollective.org/uip/apq/arti...

Contemporary Issues in Black Philosophy: Pluralism in Methodological Approaches

Abstract. This essay introduces the special issue Contemporary Issues in Black Philosophy: Pluralism in Methodological Approaches and advances a metaphilosophical argument about method in Black philos...

scholarlypublishingcollective.org

Michigan Law @umichlaw.bsky.social · 6d ago

Michigan Law #EveningRead The fundamental confusions of federal Indian law by Professor Matthew Fletcher in @scotusblog.com www.scotusblog.com/2026/09/the-...

The fundamental confusions of federal Indian law

scotusblog.com

Sam Bagenstos @sbagen.bsky.social · 7d ago

Walking home, listening to someone blasting Main Street by Bob Seger. Ann Arbor, man.

Leah Litman @leahlitman.bsky.social · 7d ago

some ~personal news~ as they say .... I'm writing a second book! I loved writing Lawless & working with One Signal. And I'm having a 💥blast 💥working on ... IDENTIFIED! more info coming, soon(ish)?

Author of LAWLESS and cohost of the Strict Scrutiny podcast Leah Litman's IDENTIFIED, chronicling the paradigm shift in how law and politics approach issues of identity, with right-wing ideology transforming identity-based discrimination into a tactic to restructure government and civic institutions, to position themselves as victims, and to persecute the very minorities those classifications were created to protect, to Alessandra Bastagli at One Signal, in an exclusive submission, for publication in spring 2028, by Amelia Atlas at CAA (world English).

Michigan Law @umichlaw.bsky.social · 7d ago

Michigan Law #MorningRead Amicus brief by Professor Alexandra Klass, et al., which was cited by United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in State of Michigan v. United States Department of Energy. statepowerproject.org/wp-content/u...

ORAL ARGUMENT NOT YET SCHEDULED
Case No. 25-1159 (consolidated with 25-1160 and 25-1162)

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN, et al.,
Petitioners,
v.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, et al.,
Respondents.
MIDCONTINENT INDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR, INC.,
Intervenor-Respondent.
On Petitions for Review of Final Order of the
Department of Energy
BRIEF OF ENERGY LAW SCHOLARS AMICI CURIAE
IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS
Jonas Monast
James P. Duffy
Alexandra L. St. Romain
CENTER FOR APPLIED ENVIRONMENTAL
LAW AND POLICY
712 H Street NE, Suite 90006
Washington, DC 20002
(802) 233-7967
jay.duffy@caelp.org
Counsel for Energy Law Scholars Amici
Cu

Acting isn’t something Andy Clubok, ’93, pursued past high school drama class. But his legal experience led to a role in episode 3 of Larry David’s sketch comedy series Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America. michigan.law.umich.edu/news/andrew-...

Andrew Clubok, ’93, Plays Senator in Larry David Comedy Show | University of Michigan Law School

Acting isn’t something Andrew Clubok, ’93, pursued past high school drama class. But his legal experience led to a role in episode 3 of Larry David’s sketch comedy series Life, Larry, and the Pursuit ...

michigan.law.umich.edu

Ann Arbor in National Geographic 🌳💙💛 www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/artic...

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Is a Charming College Town That Delivers Big-City Culture

Best known for Big Ten sports, this small city offers a surprising breadth of experiences, including big-time art, music, and nature.

nationalgeographic.com

Professor @leahlitman.bsky.social and her co-hosts are back together to break down the biggest cases and legal battles coming to the Supreme Court this term. Listen to the newest episode of @strictscrutiny.bsky.social: crooked.com/podcast/a-ne...

A list of the current episodes of the podcast, in a screenshot taken from the website

MDefenders at Michigan Law @mdefenders.bsky.social · last wk.

Michigan Law #MorningRead Professor @leahlitman.bsky.social in @jotwell.bsky.social “Lady Whistledown…and the Legal Academy?” legalpro.jotwell.com/lady-whistle...

Lady Whistledown…and the Legal Academy? - Legal Profession

Maybell Romero, Gossip, 115 Geo. L. J. __ (forthcoming, 2026), available at SSRN (Feb. 1, 2026).Leah LitmanThere’s no one like Professor Maybell Romero in the legal academy (I say this, a la Violet Ch...

legalpro.jotwell.com

Adolescents are more susceptible to outside influences than adults. This makes them more likely to give false information & introduces reliability concerns to police evidence based on adolescent interrogation. Our model motion outlines the arguments: datafordefenders.org/wp-content/u...

datafordefenders.org

sanjukta paul @sanjukta.bsky.social · last wk.

Wrote a paper.

Michigan Law@umichlaw.bsky.social · 2w ago

Michigan Law #MorningRead Professor Sanjukta Paul: "The Basis of the Labor Exemption Reconsidered." Antitrust Law Journal 87, no. 3 (2026): 837-863. www.americanbar.org/groups/antit...

Michigan Law #EveningRead "What's the Point of Reparation?" Professor Daniel Fryer in the Tulsa Law Review digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/cgi/viewcont...

Despite its ancient history in philosophical and legal thought, importance to progressive social movements, and relative simplicity as a notion of fairness—if you break
something, you ought to fix it—reparative justice is largely misunderstood. This is problematic given increasing calls for reparation from historically disadvantaged groups. Rather than assessing the validity of these claims, this Article addresses a fundamentally
antecedent issue: what’s the point of reparation? Rejecting arguments that claim reparation is about compensation, supplementing distributive justice, and reconciliation, I argue
that the point of reparation is to repair unjust social relations created by past wrongdoing.
The relational theory of reparation that I sketch here will help provide clarity on other
complicated issues, such as what reparation ought to look like and whether demands for
reparation are morally valid. Knowing the point of reparation would also have important
implications for the design of reparation programs being requested. This Article attempts
to reshape how we think about reparation in scholarly and public discourse. My hope is
to start a new scholarly discussion about reparation that avoid common misunderstandings. Providing a due diligence investigation into the point of reparation serves as a start
to answering more general questions about the proper place of reparative justice in our
theories of what we owe each other.

It's Climate Week at Michigan Law! Join us for exhibits in the Law Quad and our EELP Conference on Friday. M-F stop by for "A Walk Through Climate Law on the Law Quad." And on Friday, join us for an all-day conference, "Responding to Federal Retreat" in Jeffries Hall.