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

My symposium essay on three recent Supreme Court cases involving the interests of LGBTQ people has been published in final form. Many thanks to @lauraportuondo.bsky.social for the invitation to participate, @profjdnelson.bsky.social for the excellent comments, and the student editors at HJHLP.

Extremely excited that legal scholar extraordinaire and beloved teacher @rhollblum.bsky.social has now officially joined the @umnlawschool.bsky.social community! Great day for Minnesota Law students, faculty, and me!

If I were better at self-promotion, no doubt I would have posted about this either when the articles were accepted or right after the Slaughter decision, but perhaps better late than never! I have two articles forthcoming that, in different ways, refute the unitary executive theory.

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

Check out Issue 7 of #MLR's Vol. 124 to read recent pieces by Professor Alison Gocke of @uvalaw.bsky.social, and Professors Elizabeth Sepper (@lsepper.bsky.social), James D. Nelson (@profjdnelson.bsky.social), & Charlotte Garden (@charlottegarden.bsky.social)! #goblue READ: michiganlawreview.org

This is a terrific conversation with Steven Green about his new book: newbooksnetwork.com/american-inf...

Bagenstos on Reconstructing the Civil Rights State Samuel R. Bagenstos (University of Michigan Law School) has posted Reconstructing the Civil Rights State After Democratic Backsliding…...

Bagenstos on Reconstructing the Civil Rights State

Samuel R. Bagenstos (University of Michigan Law School) has posted Reconstructing the Civil Rights State After Democratic Backsliding (forthcoming in The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: American civil rights law has always been tied to the project of building a multiracial democracy that guarantees full and equal membership in the community and an equal opportunity to flourish.

legaltheoryblog.com

Bagenstos on Reconstructing the Public Health State Samuel R. Bagenstos (University of Michigan Law School) has posted Reconstructing the Public Health State (68 William & Mary L....

Bagenstos on Reconstructing the Public Health State

Samuel R. Bagenstos (University of Michigan Law School) has posted Reconstructing the Public Health State (68 William & Mary L. Rev. ___ (forthcoming 2027)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The American public health system is in crisis. This Essay, presented as the 2026 Wythe Lecture at the William & Mary Law School, argues that the crisis is not merely a story about Robert F.

legaltheoryblog.com

My piece on recent Supreme Court foreign relations cases and the functions of transnational litigation: tlblog.org/value-beyond...

Value Beyond Price: The Vindication Function of Transnational Litigation - Transnational Litigation Blog

Embedded in a recently decided Supreme Court case about Cuba and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act—Exxon Mobil v. Cimex—was a debate about the basic purpose of suing foreign government entities.  T...

tlblog.org

If you're starting law school this fall, and you're new to the legal system, here's a good overview of some basics that was presented as part of an orientation at UVA Law a few years ago by Dean Leslie Kendrick. www.youtube.com/watch?v=d75u...

Overview of the American Legal System

YouTube video by University of Virginia School of Law

youtube.com

New paper from me: Reconstructing the Civil Rights State After Democratic Backsliding. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Property is broken, online. Time to redefine entitlements in networks. New article: "The Platform-Property Paradox," 29 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 286. 🧵

How can Congress limit the government’s power to use federal funding as a weapon? In a new essay, @jamalgreene.bsky.social argues that reform should begin with Title VI and Title IX, whose funding-enforcement mechanism can leave universities vulnerable to political coercion.

Weakening Government Coercion by Strengthening Government Regulation

knightcolumbia.org

What do insurance and tort law have to do with each other? Everything, it turns out — thanks in large part to Prof. Kenneth S. Abraham, whose work reshaped how the field looks at that question. Scholars gathered at @uconn.bsky.social to honor him.

Insurance and Tort ‘Glitterati’ Fete Abraham at Festschrift

Scholars recently gathered in Connecticut this month for a “festschrift” celebrating University of Virginia School of Law professor Kenneth S. Abraham’s lasting impact on insurance law and tort theory...

law.virginia.edu

Posted an updated, near-final version of this piece on SSRN: Mahmoud, Skrmetti, and 303 Creative: Ignoring Original Meaning, Rewriting Precedent, and Discounting Harm to LGBTQ People papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

🚨Publication Day for Sidewalk Nation!🚨 Sidewalks connect us all, and they connect commerce, tech, tax, property, policing, homelessness, surveillance, free speech, socioeconomic equity, public health, climate resilience, and more. www.hup.harvard.edu/books/978067...

Sidewalk Nation — Harvard University Press

An illuminating ramble along the American sidewalk: routinely unnoticed, yet central to daily life, neighborhood vitality, and significant legal controversies.Public infrastructure is as essential to ...

hup.harvard.edu

My latest blog post, part of @knightcolumbia.org's Reconstructing Free Expression project, on how best to make use of diverse information flows. knightcolumbia.org/blog/toward-...

Toward Collaborative Disagreement

knightcolumbia.org

Thanks to Adam Liptak for mentioning First Amendment Inversion static.nytimes.com/email-conten... @texaslawreview @adamliptak.bsky.social

Prof. Alice Abrokwa has won the 2026 John Hope Franklin Prize for her article on the biases behind being labeled “noncompliant” in healthcare settings, and how to address them.

Professor Wins John Hope Franklin Prize

University of Virginia School of Law professor Alice Abrokwa has won the 2026 John Hope Franklin Prize for her article examining the impact of the label “noncompliant” being disproportionately applied...

law.virginia.edu

The Virginia Law Review has published a tribute to Fred Schauer. I am grateful to the editors for making this possible and for bringing together this set of reflections on Fred's life and work. virginialawreview.org/articles/in-...

Some personal news I’m proud to share:

2026 McGlothlin Teaching Award Given to Exceptional Law and Business Professors

The 2026 McGlothlin Award for Exceptional Teaching has been granted to Professor Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl of William & Mary Law School and to Professor Dawn Edmiston of the Raymond A. Mason School of Bus...

law.wm.edu

Platner's definition of the working class as anyone who earns income from work rather than investments is increasingly common on the left. It's appealing but it is clearly wrong. Culturally, economically, and legally there are major differences between wage-earners and the middle classes. 1/3

Glad to see this — bosses should not impose religion on employees virginialawreview.org/articles/cor...

Americans United for Separation of Church and State@americansunited.bsky.social · 4mo ago

BREAKING NEWS! Federal employees sue Trump administration over forced religion in the workplace, violations of church-state separation www.au.org/the-latest/p...

On this last day of classes, some exciting news: I will be moving to Brooklyn Law School in the fall! At Brooklyn, I will continue teaching Constitutional Law, Family Law, and Reproductive Rights and Justice. I will miss my UH colleagues and students, but I am very excited for this next chapter!

Here's a "hallmark" of a religious establishment: the state acting for the purpose of saving souls. And when the state claims it has secular reasons for declaring religious truth, Madison answered this "was an unhallowed perversion of the means of salvation." constitutioncenter.org/the-constitu...

Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

National Constitution Center Historic Documents Library record for Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

constitutioncenter.org

To understand how we got to this point in the breakdown of separation of church and state — in which the Court requires funding of religious schools and then gives them special exemptions from rules that apply to all other schools — it helps to have some history: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Mark Joseph Stern@mjsdc.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Supreme Court will decide whether Colorado violated the First Amendment's free exercise clause by requiring schools participating in its universal pre-K program to abide by a non-discrimination policy that Catholic schools reject. (Exceedingly ominous.) www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Bosses should not impose religion on employees: virginialawreview.org/articles/cor...

WIRED@wired.com · 4mo ago

“This has never happened before,” one government employee tells WIRED. “I have never gotten a message like this from anyone.”