Talking to other law professors, the August cycle seems more dead than usual. Did they all fill up in February?
Eric Fish
@ericfish.bsky.social
Law Professor at UC Davis. Writing about criminal law, constitutional rights, and prosecutions at the border.
Holding 17 year old for seven hours alone, refusing his requests to see his mother, claiming they had video evidence, and threatening the death penalty made resulting confession of committing two murders involuntary and inadmissible, Tenn SCT rules. www.tncourts.gov/sites/defaul...
parenting hack: pretend the roomba is alive so they don’t demand real pets
Fish on Deportation in the Deep State Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis – School of Law) has posted Deportation in the Deep State (forthcoming, Stanford Law Review) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since 1997, low-level immigration agents have conducted fast-paced deportation hearings.…
Fish on Deportation in the Deep State
Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis – School of Law) has posted Deportation in the Deep State (forthcoming, Stanford Law Review) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since 1997, low-level immigration agents have conducted fast-paced deportation hearings. These hearings, called Expedited Removals, circumvent the formal immigration court process. They involve an immigration agent interviewing an immigrant and deciding whether to order them deported, with no opportunity for appeal.
legaltheoryblog.com
Just posted "Deportation in the Deep State" to SSRN, comments welcome! Abstract/summary below. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Deportation in the Deep State (forthcoming, Stanford Law Review)
<p><span>Since 1997, low-level immigration agents have conducted fast-paced deportation hearings. These hearings, called Expedited Removals, circumvent the form
papers.ssrn.com
Each year, 2.7 million jail admissions are for misdemeanor charges. Yes, this includes charges for behaviors like jaywalking or even sitting on a sidewalk.
In today's SCOTUS oral argument, Justice Barrett asked about how Trump's rationales for denying birthright citizenship to children of illegal migrants would also deny it to many ex-slaves. SG Sauer's answer on crucial issue was factually wrong. See my explanation here: reason.com/volokh/2026/...
Justice Barrett, Slavery, and Birthright Citizenship
I have previously written about how all of the Trump Administration's rationales for denying birthright citizenship to children of…
reason.com
Pretty momentous day for anyone who doesn’t think we landed on the moon in 1969
Alito seems to be saying that they can invent new exceptions by analogy, which sounds a lot like living constitutionalism
Hot off the presses!
Southern California Law Review@sclr-official.bsky.social · 5mo agoPresenting “Sentencing Immigrants” by Professor Eric S. Fish (@ericfish.bsky.social) of the University of California at Davis School of Law (@ucdavislaw.bsky.social). Read more here: southerncalifornialawreview.com/2026/03/26/s...
Presenting “Sentencing Immigrants” by Professor Eric S. Fish (@ericfish.bsky.social) of the University of California at Davis School of Law (@ucdavislaw.bsky.social). Read more here: southerncalifornialawreview.com/2026/03/26/s...
On Pranjal Drall & @samuelmoyn.bsky.social essays in Balkinization criticizing me, @gowder.io @anthonymkreis.bsky.social & @evanbernick.bsky.social I think they are wrong about 2 big points, but I think they may be right about an implicit 3d point. It should have been directed only at Evan & me.
This is a self-defeating way of approaching legal politics. Of course Supreme Court decisions are political in a broad sense. But the legal arguments still matter. Decisions cost the Court more legitimacy if they are openly lawless. Why cede the terrain and give up arguments from legal authority?
Connor Ewing@cmewing.bsky.social · 5mo agoImportant—and also infuriating—series of posts underway at Balkinization: balkin.blogspot.com/2026/03/birt...
According to documents filed this morning by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, ICE has been lying for a year — not only to the public, but to the courts and to prosecutors — about being authorized to make arrests at 26 Federal Plaza and other immigration courts. (1/2)
The U.S. runs the largest immigration detention system in the world. But what law actually protects people inside it? A Harvard Law Review article by @Das_Alina provides an alarming answer. 🧵
RIP Habermas. To honor his memory, I will spend the day being communicatively rational in the lifeworld.
Can holistic criminal justice survive algorithmic governance? Another new 📄 of mine, “Anti-Holistic Algorithms,” now out with the @vandylaw.bsky.social Vanderbilt Law Review, grapples with this question (ssrn: shorturl.at/eyZhu) abstract 👇 & short thread 1/6
Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/
Now forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, my latest work rethinks how information should get shared in criminal cases, and why we need to look beyond the celebrated Brady doctrine if we are serious about improving the fairness of criminal discovery. 🧵🔽
Justin Murray@justinnyls.bsky.social · last yr.New paper alert! My latest - "Brady's Shadow" - is now on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Still a work in progress—would love your thoughts. It's about how one spectacularly failed doctrine somehow cannibalized other, more promising avenues for criminal discovery.🧵
Read the outstanding law review article by Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social linked in the piece—GJ reform is an absolutely necessary bulwark against tyranny. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
Opinion | A Grand Jury Will Indict a Ham Sandwich? Not in the Trump Era.
nytimes.com
Thrilled to share that 𝐺𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 has found a home with the Yale Law Journal. This piece examines parental liability regimes and parental rights, and how they are connected by a shared logic that harms children and families. Thank you to all those who read drafts and offered feedback!
Bob Dylan needs to do the right thing and give his Nobel Prize to Cormac Mccarthy
Fish & Keller on the Crime of Undocumented Presence Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis - School of Law) & Doug Keller have posted Fabricating the Crime of Undocumented Presence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2025, the Trump Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that it is…
Fish & Keller on the Crime of Undocumented Presence
Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis - School of Law) & Doug Keller have posted Fabricating the Crime of Undocumented Presence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2025, the Trump Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that it is a federal crime simply to be an undocumented immigrant. But Congress has enacted no such crime. Congress has made it a crime, codified at 8 U.S.C.
legaltheoryblog.com
Just posted a draft law review article written with @dkeller.bsky.social. It concerns the Trump Administration's efforts to turn being an undocumented immigrant into a permanent criminal status. Available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Fabricating the Crime of Undocumented Presence
<p>In 2025, the Trump Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that it is a federal crime simply to be an undocumented immigrant. But Congress has enac
papers.ssrn.com
My latest article, Policing Children’s Data, is out today. It offers a comprehensive look at how law enforcement accesses children’s digital information and challenges the assumption that parental consent is enough to protect kids’ privacy. 📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...
Policing Children’s Data – Washington University Law Review
In recent years, advances in policing technology have dramatically expanded law enforcement’s ability to access data. This includes children’s data—their photographs, text messages, geolocation data, ...
wustllawreview.org
