Stephen E. Sachs
@stephenesachs.bsky.social
Antonin Scalia Professor of Law, Harvard Law School Reporter, Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules (speaking only for myself) stevesachs.com
The application deadline is this Thursday, August 6—so apply now!
Stephen E. Sachs@stephenesachs.bsky.social · last mo.Starting at Harvard College this fall? Consider applying for my first-year seminar, "Abortion in Controversy"! Limited to 15 students, meeting Tuesdays 3-5. Syllabus and reading list linked below: stevesachs.com/syllabi/abor...
If you're starting law school this fall, you might be interested in my short essay, "How to Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide for New Law Students." You can download it for free here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Dispatches from the AI frontier: Planning a dinner with tres leches cake, I asked ChatGPT to write about it in the spirit of the classic Onion "Five Blades" piece. Blocked from downloading the piece itself, it thought for 31 seconds and wrote this. For comedy writing, at least, AGI is already here.
Parties exist partly to vet candidates & vouch for them so voters don't pick someone bad out of ignorance. Primaries short-circuit this function since primary electorates can no more do this vetting than can general election ones.
Andy Craig@andycraig.bsky.social · last mo.*taps sign* The government running party primary elections instead of letting parties pick their own nominees in the manner of their choosing is a weird American thing that eviscerates the fundamental purpose of political parties and it's bad, actually.
Proposal: Congress should tax residents of rent-controlled apartments on the extra imputed income (and give a corresponding deduction to the owner, whose reporting would help the IRS match the two)
Ben Sasse is correct—“Cameras in the Court” is a bad cause. (And what he says about committees is a very strong argument for keeping them off C-SPAN. The floor is theater anyway; the committees need to be a place for real work.) (h/t @orinkerr.bsky.social) www.wsj.com/opinion/free...
Opinion | Ben Sasse: Keep Cameras Out of the Supreme Court
The last thing the judicial branch needs is to become a platform for partisan gasbags.
wsj.com
Out 7/7: An essay collection on the challenges, risks, and opportunities of this historic moment in American law and governance. Featuring essays by more than 50 Harvard Law School faculty members, including Stephen Breyer, Jill Lepore, & Annette Gordon-Reed. mitpress.mit.edu/978026206043...
Starting at Harvard College this fall? Consider applying for my first-year seminar, "Abortion in Controversy"! Limited to 15 students, meeting Tuesdays 3-5. Syllabus and reading list linked below: stevesachs.com/syllabi/abor...
Congratulations to my Conflict of Laws students on finishing their semester! Now the rest of you can try out the final exam for yourselves at home: stevesachs.com/Exam_Conflic...
This, from David Bernstein, is a key point. When I first saw the story I thought it boorish for Peterson to misuse his captive audience (merits aside); to provide one text for preapproval and then deliver another is worse. Surprised so many prominent folks at @umichlaw.bsky.social have defended that
What’s the prevailing view on why Justices Sotomayor and Kagan joined today’s order?
A landmark, must-read article on the Equal Rights Amendment by Harvard Law's Stephen E. Sachs, in the University of Chicago Law Review (5-1-26). Here is the link to his full article, "The Twelfth Amendment and the ERA"; there is a "Download PDF" button there. lawreview.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...
The Twelfth Amendment and the ERA | The University of Chicago Law Review
How many amendments are in the Constitution? Americans should be able to know. But whether the Equal Rights Amendment is—right now—part of the Constitution remains controversial. Thirty-eight states h...
lawreview.uchicago.edu
Stephen E. Sachs@stephenesachs.bsky.social · 3mo agoNOW OUT IN @uchilrev.bsky.social: "The Twelfth Amendment and the ERA" In the 12th & 17th amendments, Congress put operative text in amending resolutions, not just in a proposed article. This suggests the ERA’s 7-year limit is valid—and that the article it proposed isn't part of our Constitution
NOW OUT IN @uchilrev.bsky.social: "The Twelfth Amendment and the ERA" In the 12th & 17th amendments, Congress put operative text in amending resolutions, not just in a proposed article. This suggests the ERA’s 7-year limit is valid—and that the article it proposed isn't part of our Constitution
Stephen E. Sachs@stephenesachs.bsky.social · last yr.Pleased to announce that "THE TWELFTH AMENDMENT AND THE ERA" is now forthcoming in the University of Chicago Law Review! @uchilrev.bsky.social
Volume 93.3 is now live, featuring pieces by Charles Capps; @joshuamacey.bsky.social, Ketan Ramakrishnan & Brian Richardson; @stephenesachs.bsky.social; and Grant Christensen. You can find them all here: lawreview.uchicago.edu.
On National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day, we should think of ways to get pets out of shelters and into loving homes. Here are our shelter cats, present and past, adopted from NC's Chatham Animal Rescue: reason.com/volokh/2019/...
Whatever one makes of these memos, whoever leaked them breached the trust that allows courts to do their jobs. One of the article's coauthors, a licensed atty in NY, may have also violated the state's ethics rules and be subject to discipline. 1/ reason.com/volokh/2026/...
Will be appearing on this Originalism panel at the Organization of American Historians conference this weekend: @oah.org www.oah.org/conferences/...
Coming up on Monday, for Harvard Law affiliates. Looking forward!
“I will make your heirs as numerous as the stars of heaven, but not nearly so numerous as the crumbs your kids will leave after eating a single piece of matzah each”
Stephen E. Sachs@stephenesachs.bsky.social · 4mo agoKind of darkly hilarious that we’re supposed to go through the whole house to get rid of bread crumbs, only then to start a week of eating matzah, which generates more crumbs per square meter per second than any substance known to man
Kind of darkly hilarious that we’re supposed to go through the whole house to get rid of bread crumbs, only then to start a week of eating matzah, which generates more crumbs per square meter per second than any substance known to man
My favorite Passover-related story about vampires, from Scott Alexander. Chag sameach! slatestarcodex.com/2017/04/13/c...
Chametz
It was just before midnight when a cloud covered the moon and a bat flew right in front of me. Before I had time to worry about whether I was up to date on my rabies shots, it had transformed into …
slatestarcodex.com
