Thrilled that my and @donfro.bsky.social's new paper, "Constitutional Rights and General Private Law," will be in the Harvard Law Review next year. It's a sequel to our 2023 Yale L.J. piece, "The Fourth Amendment and General Law." We need to revise, so no @SSRN yet, but here's the abstract:

New draft paper on SSRN: "Fact Avoidance," forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review Supreme Court Issue. This Essay identifies a recurring feature where the Court decides presidential power cases entirely on legal grounds without engaging at all with the facts /1 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Zotero law people: I just pushed version 1.3 of the Citations Fixer plugin. It fixes recurring citation issues that the style file can't handle. Check it out: danepps.github.io/zotero/blueb...

Our latest, with more to come this week as the SCOTUS opinion dump wraps up.

Divided Argument@dividedargument.bsky.social · last mo.

🎙️ New episode: "Mechanical / Animal" We're in triage mode as SCOTUS clears its backlog. We dig into Wolford v. Lopez, Pung v. Isabella County, a Landor flip theory, and the week's 6-3 wins. https://dividedargument.com/podcast/divided-argument/episode/mechanical-animal

Secondly, and perhaps a bit niche but a lifesaver for those who need it, this #DigitalFriday plug in for law scholars using zotero bsky.app/profile/epps...

Dan Epps@epps.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Law folks using Zotero: I'm ready to release my "Bluebook Citations Fixer" plugin designed to address some recurring issues with law review citations that Zotero alone can't handle. Download and instructions at link below. danepps.github.io/zotero/blueb...

Very proud of @donfro.bsky.social for her election to the American Law Institute! www.ali.org/members/memb...

Member Directory

ali.org

Yeah, it's probably not a great sign of higher-ed's stability and longevity that every few years there's a new flash-in-the-pan technology or subfield of study that all the funding gets funneled towards until another shiny object comes along.

Josh Shepperd@joshshepperd.bsky.social · 2mo ago

I hate to say it, but the colleagues positioning themselves to be pro AI in teaching and curriculum, are probably also positioning themselves to be administrators, and probably aren’t thinking about or don’t care how it will affect teaching, learning, or the careers of those around them.

Law folks using Zotero: I'm ready to release my "Bluebook Citations Fixer" plugin designed to address some recurring issues with law review citations that Zotero alone can't handle. Download and instructions at link below. danepps.github.io/zotero/blueb...

Law folks using Zotero: I'm ready to release my "Bluebook Citations Fixer" plugin designed to address some recurring issues with law review citations that Zotero alone can't handle. Download and instructions at link below. danepps.github.io/zotero/blueb...

I had a great time on NPR's 1A talking about SCOTUS reform with @kateshaw.bsky.social and @aliciabannon.bsky.social this morning. Link: the1a.org/segments/if-...

If You Can Keep It: Reforming the Supreme Court, part 2

We talk more about what’s possible and answer more questions.

the1a.org

Divided Argument 🎙️ in the wild . . . @williambaude.bsky.social @epps.bsky.social #ALI

New @dividedargument.bsky.social episode: "Majordoma" We take a medium-deep dive into LA v. Callais. dividedargument.com/episode/majo...

Majordoma | An unscheduled, unpredictable Supreme Court podcast.

The Court’s latest Voting Rights Act decision, Louisiana v. Callais , narrows Section 2 in a way that could reshape redistricting, weaken majority-minority...

dividedargument.com

Law profs - ICYMI, @washulawreview.bsky.social just posted a Call for Papers on Scholastica for their upcoming Symposium on "The Many Faces of the State." What a great idea for a symposium - very timely and innovative.

🎙️ New episode: "Even Eve-ier" We cover leaked SCOTUS memos, shadow docket reversals, Sotomayor's Kavanaugh apology, and a contractor preemption case narrowing a Scalia opinion. https://dividedargument.com/podcast/divided-argument/episode/even-eve-ier

Unfortunately, there are some features of legal cites that aren't possible to implement using a CSL style. (For example, generating "hereinafters" for two cites by the same author in the same FN. I'm working on some plugins that might fix that (using Claude ofc). Please flag other things like that!

Dan Epps@epps.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Law profs/students/anyone doing legal scholarship: If you're not using @zotero.org to manage cites and research, you should. An unbelievable time saver. I've revised the Bluebook style for rendering footnotes, w/ detailed instructions on using Zotero: danepps.github.io/bluebook/

Law profs/students/anyone doing legal scholarship: If you're not using @zotero.org to manage cites and research, you should. An unbelievable time saver. I've revised the Bluebook style for rendering footnotes, w/ detailed instructions on using Zotero: danepps.github.io/bluebook/

Agree or disagree: the length of a dissent is inversely related to its persuasiveness.

Some big professional news: I’m thrilled to be joining the amazing faculty at @fordhamlawnyc.bsky.social this fall! 🧵

For more on my and @willsortman.bsky.social's Defender General, see this NYT article by @adamliptak.bsky.social: www.nytimes.com/2020/01/27/u...

A Proposal to Offset Prosecutors’ Power: The ‘Defender General’ (Published 2020)

nytimes.com

Dan Epps@epps.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A great development, but I disagree w/ the article's claim that this is totally different from my & @willsortman.bsky.social's "Defender General." This helps w/ problems we identified & resembles our proposal even if it doesn't go far enough. Article here: repository.law.upenn.edu/Documents/De...

A great development, but I disagree w/ the article's claim that this is totally different from my & @willsortman.bsky.social's "Defender General." This helps w/ problems we identified & resembles our proposal even if it doesn't go far enough. Article here: repository.law.upenn.edu/Documents/De...

Jimmy Hoover@jimmyhoover.bsky.social · 5mo ago

SCOOP: Federal judiciary approves new Supreme Court defender office to help represent indigent defendants at #SCOTUS. Its full-time director will serve as a counterweight to the U.S. solicitor general in federal criminal cases. The first will be former Kagan clerk and SG atty Ashley Robertson.

At the 2026 National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars. The Rehnquist Center at Arizona Law puts together a great program. Neat to see tomorrow’s debates forming…and the sunsets aren’t bad.

I am 43 years old. I would like to think that if 13-year-old me could see the life I would build three decades hence, he would be pleased.

I very much appreciate Mark’s engagement and think he makes some good points worth reading!

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 7mo ago

I finally had a chance to digest this thread and I actually agree with much it … up to the point that it accuses me of refusing to engage with differing views and trying to “burn it all down!” I think Amicus listeners know that’s untrue; we actually get flak for being too soft on the court.

New post from me on the @dividedargument.bsky.social blog: "Case v. Montana and the General Law Approach to the Fourth Amendment" blog.dividedargument.com/p/case-v-mon...

Case v. Montana and the General Law Approach to the Fourth Amendment

Justice Gorsuch seems to look to modern general law to flesh out the content of the Fourth Amendment in today's Fourth Amendment decision.

blog.dividedargument.com

What you want today: Tariffs, Voting Rights What you’ll (probably) get instead: USPS v. Konan (liability for undelivered mail); Coney Island Auto Parts (time limits for motions to set aside void judgments)

NEW EPISODE: "The Marshal and the Margarine" We catch up on Trump v. Illinois, the national guard case, after first warming up with new Erie scholarship, state criminal jurisdiction over federal officers, and some recent online discourse. dividedargument.simplecast.com/episodes/the...

The Marshal and the Margarine | Divided Argument

We're back with the first episode of the new year, breaking down the interim docket opinion/order in Trump v. Illinois, the national guard case, after first warming up with new Erie scholarship, state...

dividedargument.simplecast.com

When you’re waiting for huge opinions, never, ever underestimate the Court’s ability to disappoint you.

The entire thread is worth your time. The portion around and including this post gets at a point I tried to make in my book - the less common ground within the profession about what the rule of law entails, the less likely we are to be able to sustain the rule of law.

Dan Epps@epps.bsky.social · 7mo ago

That's why I don't like the rise of two separate legal-ideological bubbles. If conservatives only talk to other conservatives, and feel no need to take seriously any arguments on the other side—things go badly. And we're a way down that slippery slope.

Regardless of one's view of politics, is it a better world if courts declare—even in ordinary breach-of-contract cases—that "Plaintiff wins because he's a Dem" (or R based on who appointed the judge)? Even if you dislike judicial review, we need courts for ordinary disputes. We need law for those.

Pretty sure I'm one of the folks Mark's subtweeting. While I don’t feel compelled to respond, this actually provides a beautiful lesson for how academics and other serious observers might think about engaging with the Court and law. (thread)

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 7mo ago

There's a rising faction of the legal academy that stays quiet when their MAGAdemic colleagues produce fraudulent psuedo-scholarship in service to the cruelest aspects of Trump's agenda ... then leap in to police the discourse when their progressive colleagues criticize those MAGAdemics too bluntly.