Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social
Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
You guys. The Legal History Blog @legalhistoryblog.bsky.social has hit 15,000(!) posts! 👏 It's been an honor to help run the blog & to work beside true LHB stalwart Dan Ernst @dbqur.bsky.social. All hail LHB founder & visionary @marydudziak.bsky.social 🙌 #LegalHistory
LHB 15,000
This is the 15,000th post on Legal History Blog. No less than at its founding by Mary Dudziak almost twenty years ago, it remains committe...
legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com
For anyone with a digital legal history project: please consider nominating it for the ASLH's 2026 Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize. Submissions are due June 1, 2026. Full details here: aslh.net/award/mary-l... #legalhistory
Blueskys: the American Society for Legal History has a Digital Legal History Prize! Deadline June 1. I am a little embarrassed to have such a prize named for me since my current work isn't digital. 🙄 But years ago, when blogs were new, I created the Legal History Blog. aslh.net/award/mary-l...
Mary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize | American Society for Legal History
The Dudziak Prize, named in honor of Mary L. Dudziak, a leading scholar of twentieth century U.S. legal history and international relations as well as a digital history pioneer, is awarded annually to...
aslh.net
Today the California Supreme Court held that the right to bail is a right to release on “reasonably attainable” conditions—i.e., courts cannot use arbitrary amounts of money to effectuate pretrial detention. www4.courts.ca.gov/opinions/doc...
www4.courts.ca.gov
The first review of my book is out, and at 65 pages it’s trying to out-prolix me! Sincerely grateful to José for the extended, deep engagement with my work. Excited to see the directions he’s taking it. yalelawjournal.org/review/the-c...
Schmidt & Funk on the Supreme Court’s Equity Docket Thomas P. Schmidt (Columbia University - Law School) & Kellen Funk (Columbia University - Law School) have posted The Equity Docket (101 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court has two sides. On its…
Schmidt & Funk on the Supreme Court’s Equity Docket
Thomas P. Schmidt (Columbia University - Law School) & Kellen Funk (Columbia University - Law School) have posted The Equity Docket (101 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court has two sides. On its ordinary docket, the Court answers questions of law after briefing and oral argument. On its extraordinary docket, the Court fields applications from litigants asking it to equitably set the status of a new law or executive action while a lawsuit is pending.
legaltheoryblog.com
A few months ago I realized my rare and valuable skill—writing code as a historian—was still valuable but no longer rare. Now I'm thinking about what it means when the technical barriers to digital history drop away.
Behind, ahead | Lincoln Mullen
A historian reflects on how agentic AI coding tools have changed the possibilities for digital history, making once-rare programming skills widely accessible, and argues that digital history should be...
lincolnmullen.com
Tom Schmidt isn’t on socials, and I rarely post—not great for coining a term, but we hope you’ll give the Equity Docket a try anyway! A historical way of evaluating what the Supreme Court does with most of its time now: More equity, less shadow, not so interim. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Further support for my reading of “Junkers” is that the public, recorded debates had several references to “Gypsies” accompanying references to the “Chinese,” “Mongolians,” and “Chinamen.” Trumbull is keeping the sequence of disfavored groups but using the more polite terms.
Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social · 7mo agoSo, I read through the transcription part of the Lash paper again. Again, I am okay with using AI to assist with difficult handwriting samples. That said. I’m really not convinced that it says “Yankees” after Irish. It looks like Irish Indian to me with missing comma. I’ll chew on that. HOWEVER:
Arrived in sunny New Mexico just in time to catch the #sunspots more or less centered on their way around.
On a quick glance it would seem to me the only funds that could be readily sequestered to punish bail reform jurisdictions would be the funds that go to militarize the local police. Donald Trump: big fan of defunding the police. Put it in the papers. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Taking Steps to End Cashless Bail to Protect Americans
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1. Purpose and
whitehouse.gov
Absolutely incredible graphic from 1880 tracing the history of political parties in the United States.
Thank you to @lukenorris.bsky.social @profk.bsky.social and others at U. Richmond Law for hosting the 10th Civ Pro workshop. Lots of great papers there, as usual, but the one thing I will highlight here, because it’s a book, is …
Exciting to see so many colleagues whose work I admire on this list. Congratulations to @marthasjones.bsky.social @kbgraubart.bsky.social @annetteyreed.bsky.social @kellenfunk.bsky.social @jimdowns.bsky.social @francinejharris.bsky.social and many not on here.
Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows — Guggenheim Fellowships: Supporting Artists, Scholars, & Scientists
Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has given Fellowships to exceptional artists, writers, scholars, and scientists, empowering them to pursue meaningful work under the freest possible conditions.
gf.org
Congrats to the new class of Guggenheim Fellows! Thrilled to see @jimdowns.bsky.social, @marthasjones.bsky.social, @kellenfunk.bsky.social and so many more. Apologies in advance for the hazing rituals. www.gf.org/stories/anno...
Announcing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows — Guggenheim Fellowships: Supporting Artists, Scholars, & Scientists
Since 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has given Fellowships to exceptional artists, writers, scholars, and scientists, empowering them to pursue meaningful work under the freest possible conditions.
gf.org
Blown away by amazing presentations, mostly from early career historians and archivists, at the Archives as Data conference this morning! (before heading over to #aha25 later this afternoon...) iserp.columbia.edu/events/archi...
Archives As Data: New Directions in Historical Research | Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP)
Columbia's History Lab and Columbia Libraries proudly present a one-day conference highlighting the innovative work and new research opportunities emerging from the increasing volume of digitized and ...
iserp.columbia.edu
I mourn the loss of my colleague Henry Paul Monaghan, a giant in federal courts and constitutional law, a phenomenal mentor to more junior scholars, and an institution at Columbia Law School. He will be greatly missed.
There is so much to say about my dear mentor, Henry Monaghan. His work was foundational. His critiques, devastating. His praise, life changing. More to say in an appropriate medium, but for now: I will miss him.
Call for Papers - 14th Annual Junior Federal Courts Workshop - Cornell Law School, 4/25/2025. Junior scholars in fields of federal courts, civil procedure, civil rights litigation, constitutional law are encouraged to apply. Abstracts due 1/15/25. community.lawschool.cornell.edu/junior-facul...
14th Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop – Cornell Law School Community
The workshop will begin on the morning of Friday, April 25, 2025. Each panel will consist of three to four junior scholars, with a senior scholar commenting on the papers and leading a group discussion.
community.lawschool.cornell.edu
Two new district judge retirement announcements: Judges Lance Africk (EDLA) and Lee Rosenthal (SDTX) will assume senior status later this year.
In the 1890s a discerning buyer could purchase a poster-size facsimile of the bail bond of Jefferson Davis from 1867. Keep in mind when you see “I’m voting for the felon” merchandise thirty years hence.
On Friday a federal district court preliminarily enjoined Georgia's unconstitutional restrictions on charitable bail funds, relying in part on "Bail at the Founding." Cool cool cool. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
Today @rrchnm.bsky.social released Antisemitism, U.S.A., our newest history podcast. www.r2studios.org/show/Antisem... The narrative podcast tells the history of U.S. antisemitism in ten episodes, featuring interviews with dozens of experts on the subject.
Antisemitism, U.S.A.
Antisemitism has deep roots in American history. Yet in the United States, we often talk about it as if it were something new. We’re shocked when events happen like…
r2studios.org
Millions of people are incarcerated pre-trial because they can't make cash bail. But where did the system of cash bail come from? @kellenfunk.bsky.social and Sandra Mayson offer a history of "Bail at the Founding" in the Harvard Law Review. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...
Bail at the Founding - Harvard Law Review
Abstract How did criminal bail work in the Founding era? This question has become pressing as bail, and bail reform, have attracted increasing attention,...
harvardlawreview.org
Now out from me and Sandy Mayson in the Harvard Law Review: Bail at the Founding, our best efforts to reconstruct the theory and practice of pretrial criminal bail in the 1790s U.S. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13... (cont’d)
Bail at the Founding - Harvard Law Review
Abstract How did criminal bail work in the Founding era? This question has become pressing as bail, and bail reform, have attracted increasing attention,...
harvardlawreview.org
Got asked today to peer review a Very Short Introduction. Will have to keep it in the smuggler’s compartment I guess.
