Micah Schwartzman
@micahschwartzman.bsky.social
Law professor at the University of Virginia.
I wrote my first piece on the age of federal judicial nominees 17 years ago (with David Fontana, newrepublic.com/article/6257...). This kind of piece seems obligatory every few years now. www.politico.com/news/2026/10...
Trump is putting a generation of young judges on the bench — for life
Trump has nominated at least 33 people in their 30s to lifetime federal judgeships.
politico.com
SCOTUS granted cert today on what counts as substantial burden under RLUIPA’s land use provisions. If this wasn’t on your radar, Amir Downing has an excellent note forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, taking a deep dive into the circuit conflict. A preview here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Religious Land Use Exceptionalism: The Meaning of "Substantial Burden" in RLUIPA
Religious organizations have fairly predictable needs that come into conflict with the interests of local government. In a land use context, a religious organiz
papers.ssrn.com
As Linda Greenhouse writes, St. Mary v Roy is a case asking a fundamental question about religious freedom: “Equality or preference?” She links my article with @nelsontebbe.bsky.social and @richschragger.bsky.social, arguing that the Court is committed to the latter — a doctrine of preference.
Opinion | This Case Has Flown Under the Radar. It Won’t Stay There.
This case has flown under the radar, but it won’t stay there.
nytimes.com
Publication day for this volume. My thanks to co-editors @nelsontebbe.bsky.social and Cécile Laborde, and to a terrific set of authors, for seeing it through. Thanks also to Anna Schuleit Haber for allowing us to include her artwork in the cover design. global.oup.com/academic/pro...
In my capacity as secretary-treasurer of NOMOS: The American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy, I'm happy to announce our upcoming conference. This is a hybrid event, and you can register here: www.political-theory.org/event-657172...
In a concurrence to his own majority opinion in a Title VII vaccine exemption case, a Ninth Circuit judge claims that the administrative state is “inherently hostil[e]” to religion because administrators rely on rational and secular reasons to make decisions. /1 cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/op...
A majority of the Indiana Supreme Court sounds hostile to the religious claims in this abortion exemption case. That’s not surprising, but the case remains an important test of whether “religious liberty for all” is a principled commitment or a hollow promise (cf papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....).
Religious Freedom and Abortion
The demise of Roe v. Wade has raised a host of religious liberty questions that were submerged prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s
papers.ssrn.com
State Court Report@statecourtreport.org · last mo.The Indiana Supreme Court is hearing arguments today in a class action claiming the state’s abortion ban violates religious liberties. A lower court issued an injunction against the ban. Watch and read more about the arguments here:
Two add'l notes: 1. RFRAs are designed to restore a constitutional exemption regime created by Justice Brennan in 1963 that was never rooted in history. 2. Impossible to see principled cabining of state RFRA claims & Tandon claims that precludes claims in abortion cases but not vaccine cases.
Micah Schwartzman@micahschwartzman.bsky.social · last mo.In the story below, First Liberty's GC argues that abortion exemptions weren't available historically. But that historical objection somehow disappears when he argues for vaccine exemptions, even though no court in U.S. history granted one before COVID. Cf. news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-a...
In the story below, First Liberty's GC argues that abortion exemptions weren't available historically. But that historical objection somehow disappears when he argues for vaccine exemptions, even though no court in U.S. history granted one before COVID. Cf. news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-a...
UVA Law School@uvalaw.bsky.social · last mo.Prof. @micahschwartzman.bsky.social ’05 filed an amicus brief at the Indiana Supreme Court arguing that there is a religious right to abortion access. @bloomberglaw.com
As fusionist/libertarian organizations succumb to integralist ralliement:
If you’re interested in the conservative legal movement’s self-understanding, it’s worth reading through this syllabus — from Straussian to new natural law, to Catholic integralism (aka “common good” constitutionalism), to various originalisms.
Virtue at the Founding — America at 250
Exploring the moral foundations of the Republic on the occasion of America's 250th anniversary.
fedsoc.org
This piece by @tmbejan.bsky.social strikes me as mistaken about what "American liberals" believe about Locke, religious establishment, and the role of Locke's arguments in the case for disestablishment. /1
What Locke Knew About Elites
How liberals learned to stop worrying and love the establishment.
persuasion.community
If there is still a distinction between liberty and license, vaccines should be the easy case. @andrewkoppelman.bsky.social www.usatoday.com/story/opinio...
Trump has made 'freedom' a cover for killing kids | Opinion
Measles and SSPE kill more often than doctors once believed. The Trump administration's vaccine exemptions could expose thousands of children to it.
usatoday.com
Reasonableness is underrated.
Guillaume A.W. Attia@gawattia.bsky.social · 2mo agoLibertas has to do with being generous and open-handed. Liberalism expressed at the intellectual level is about being open-minded. Liberals are reasonable. That is a pro-social disposition that is hard to practice. Read more @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/the-reasonab... me
Libertas has to do with being generous and open-handed. Liberalism expressed at the intellectual level is about being open-minded. Liberals are reasonable. That is a pro-social disposition that is hard to practice. Read more @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/the-reasonab... me
The Reasonable Liberal
We must begin the process of making our political rivals not just more legible but human in a way we can also recognize in ourselves.
liberalcurrents.com
This was apparent from the beginning. (See, e.g., papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....) But it also helps to read Eliot and his appeal to Southern Agrarians. Religious authoritarianism and anti-industrial/capitalist views have a long history of running together.
The Unreasonableness of Catholic Integralism
Catholic integralism has reemerged as a radical critique of liberalism and as a potential source of justification for illiberal regimes. Integralists argue that
papers.ssrn.com
The Bulwark@thebulwark.com · 2mo ago"Right-wingers throw around the 'socialist' allegation constantly, as they have done for decades. But beyond being inaccurate, the claim is distracting." @mattpolprof.bsky.social on the real problem with postliberalism:
Those darned progressives hijacking RFRA, a law sponsored by Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy and signed into law by Bill Clinton to overturn a Supreme Court ruling written by Antonin Scalia.
Micah Schwartzman@micahschwartzman.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis piece revives Josh Blackman’s “tentative thoughts” that liberal Jews are lying about their religious beliefs in claiming free exercise exemptions from abortion bans. He says these claims “also give progressives a way to accuse conservatives of hypocrisy.” /1
This thread is 🔥 — and some great links to history and tradition.
Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg@theradr.bsky.social · 2mo agoHi! I’m the rabbi that organized 2500 other rabbis around this principle before, during and after the fall of Dobbs. A thread!! 🧵 First of all, there’s a lot of clarity in the tradition about this. From the Mishnah on down:
This piece revives Josh Blackman’s “tentative thoughts” that liberal Jews are lying about their religious beliefs in claiming free exercise exemptions from abortion bans. He says these claims “also give progressives a way to accuse conservatives of hypocrisy.” /1
The Left’s Fake Conversion To Religious Liberty
The progressive legal establishment treated religious freedom exemptions as obstacles to be dismantled, threatening livelihoods and institutions.
dailycaller.com
In their recent #MLR piece, @lsepper.bsky.social, @profjdnelson.bsky.social, & @charlottegarden.bsky.social argue the right of expressive association shouldn't presumptively cover employment relationships given key distinctions between employment & membership. READ: bit.ly/MLRVol124Iss7SepNelGard
There is apparently some kind of meltdown happening over there about what the “common good” means. Various abstract conceptions are being debated, with the predictable need to defend appealing to such abstractions. /1
I agree about the importance of the subject matter, but the argument would benefit from engagement with the literature on appeasement.
William Baude@williambaude.bsky.social · 2mo agoThis might be the most important thing I’ve written in a long time: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Reading up on St. Mary Catholic Parish v. Roy, I went back to look at Lemon v. Kurtzman, which I'd forgotten was unanimous on Pennsylvania's law; 8-1 on Rhode Island's. Justice White was the sole dissenter. Interestingly, he included the footnote below. Will this hold up after St. Mary is decided?
A couple Third Circuit judges cite Aquinas and Catholic integralists in support of deregulating AR-15s and other high capacity semi-automatic weapons. If you want to know what “common good constitutionalism”/Catholic integralism (they are the same thing) really means, see how it’s applied.
The Supreme Court is wrong about what the Constitution means. THREAD www.wsj.com/us-news/law/...
Changing the Constitution: Five Proposals for a More Perfect Union
We asked five experts across the political spectrum: What would you change about the U.S. Constitution if you could?
wsj.com
Can I get some help on the math for this one? 75 years takes us back to 1951 (Eisenhower). Since then there have been 21 Republican confirmations to the Court and 9 Democratic. Going back only 50 years doesn’t fix the problem. www.senate.gov/legislative/...
The Supreme Court has been dodging cert petitions in vaccine exemption cases for several years now. It granted, vacated, and reversed (GVR’ed) a Second Circuit decision — see below. And now CA2 has responded, saying to the Justices, in effect: if you really want this, you have to come and get it.
Dorit Reiss@doritreiss.bsky.social · 3mo agoYesterday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed that New York's removal of its religious exemption from its school vaccine mandate did not violate the First Amendment. I will write a deeper dive later. Here is the decision: ww3.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/OP...
HHS is laying the groundwork to encourage refusals of healthcare and go after states that safeguard reproductive care. The reorganization of the Office of Civil Rts to prioritize and separate "conscience" claims also tells the antiabortion flank that their day is coming
Trump administration puts religious freedom at heart of US health policy
Critics say the new focus could reshape LGBTQ+ healthcare, abortion access and vaccine policy
theguardian.com
