@uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professors Noah Chauvin (@noahchauvin.bsky.social) and Michael Smith (@msmith750.bsky.social) recently presented their work at a Junior Faculty Workshop at the Univ. of Tulsa College of Law alongside faculty from Arkansas, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City University.

Reflecting on how lucky I am to live in a country with such extraordinary material wealth that we just leave food products out to rot as decoration.

Know a law student interested in Communication/Media Law? Applications are open for the Forum on Communications Law's Annual Conference and Media Advocacy Workshop scholarships to attend the February 2026 conference in Phoenix. Application information available on the Forum's website.

The call for papers for the 11th Emerging Scholars Conference in Public Law at UT Austin is now open! This year’s theme is "Bastion of Democracy: The Role of Courts in Navigating Democratic Governance." The deadline is Wednesday, October 15. Submit your abstract here: lnkd.in/gxyZ6SCRhttp...

10/10 agree with the outcome 1/10 I do not like the opinion. Its seriousness is undermined because it reads like a weapon in search of a target. It’s a dire warning I agree with. But this should’ve been sober but damning analysis.

A good piece from Joseph Margulies on the way in which debates about legality can substitute for the real issues. This is something I try to have my national security lawyering students to wrestle with in thinking about the proper role of government attorneys. www.bostonreview.net/articles/the...

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

President Trump’s new order to “counter political violence” is really a mandate to police speech. Protected advocacy becomes “radicalization.” Criticism becomes “justifying violence.” This is an attack on the First Amendment, not on political violence, argues @walterolson.bsky.social:

California lawmakers can and should, by use of their rightful constitutional powers, restrict state and local law enforcers' use of masks. But ICE is a federal agency, which means the Supremacy Clause bars states from ordering it to unmask. Federal action is needed; let's start preparing for it now.

When I was at DHS, I’d have calls with lawyers from the components (especially CBP and ICE) in which they’d refer to things “DHS” wanted them to do as of we didn’t have the same boss. The lack of a coherent identity is a nightmare for any DHS Secretary trying to reform (or control) the Department.

I ageee with @noahchauvin.bsky.social and Vik Amar. This is the correct test, though sympathetic as I am to the California legislation.

A good piece from Prof. Vikram David Amar on why California's No Secret Police Act is, as he puts it, "constitutionally dead on arrival." verdict.justia.com/2025/09/24/a...

Not just a high stakes position. Before I started as a junior DOJ attorney, a mentor told me to prewrite my resignation letter and put it in my desk drawer. I never had to use but it’s advice I’ve given ever since to my own students.

*Another* motor vehicle theft on campus (someone boosted a scooter)

Professor Noah Chauvin @noahchauvin.bsky.social, one of the newest @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social faculty members, recently presented at the Belmont Law Review symposium on Contemporary Issues in National Security and the Law.

For more on this point, see this recent essay by my colleague, @noahchauvin.bsky.social: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Days without an administration official threatening someone with legal consequences for protected speech: 0

Big news out of California today: Gov. Newsom signed into law a bill that prohibits all law enforcement officers (including federal officers such as ICE agents) from wearing face coverings while on duty in most circumstances. This bill is likely unconstitutional. 1/13 apnews.com/article/cali...

Great thread on a weird case.

"Free speech is not merely a favor for our friends—it is the best nonviolent technology humans have for solving our conflicts." A compelling column from @glukianoff.bsky.social--highly recommend! expression.fire.org/p/bury-the-w...

A good column from Stephen L. Carter on why state and local efforts to unmask ICE won't succeed, and explaining why agents shouldn't be masking as a matter of policy. www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

I've posted a draft of my paper "The Rhetoric of Law in Executive Order No. 12,333" to SSRN. Comments greatly appreciated! I'll be presenting it at next week's Belmont Law Review symposium. If you'll be in Nashville on the 19th, please join us! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The California legislature is the first state or local legislative body to pass a bill that would ban ICE and other federal law enforcement from wearing masks while on duty. Unclear whether Gov. Newsom will sign it into law; he has Supremacy Clause concerns. www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

My colleague @msmith750.bsky.social has a good op-ed in The Oklahoman on our state's new "woke test" for teachers. www.oklahoman.com/story/opinio...

Learned how to shake hands and now ready to go to work!

Per FIRE, 42% of University of Oklahoma students think it’s acceptable to use violence to shut down a speaker in certain instances. That is bad. rankings.thefire.org/campus/20750...

She’s not just great in the classroom, she’s great on TV! @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Prof. @tpearl.bsky.social appeared on ABC’s Dallas evening news program providing expert commentary on a pending criminal case in Oklahoma. Watch the segment here: www.wfaa.com/article/news...

Congratulations to @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor Megan Shaner for her recent appointment by the President of the Delaware State Bar Association to the Editorial Board for the Delaware Law Review!

Congratulations to @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Prof. @msmith750.bsky.social for placing his article “Species of State Constitutional Lockstepping” in the Villanova Law Review and his article “Bail and Time-Served Plea Offers” in the Brooklyn Law Review!

Congrats to @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Prof. @noahchauvin.bsky.social for having “Understanding Free Speech Values at the Supreme Court,” a review of Eric Kasper and Troy Kozma’s book, “The Supreme Court and the Philosopher,” accepted for publication by the Rutgers Univ. Law Rev. Commentaries!

Spotted in Norman.

What a time to be drafting a paper discussing claims the President's inherent Article II authority. Anyways...

Not Turkey?

I'm excited to be publishing my paper "Can States Force ICE to Take Off the Masks?" in the Southern California Law Review Postscript! Thanks to everyone who has provided feedback so far. Additional comments are welcomed! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The New York Times has a good profile of David Warrington, the White House Counsel. Probably of particular interest to people interested in what role government lawyers should play in facilitating their clients’ interests (and who their clients are). Gift link below! www.nytimes.com/2025/09/02/u...

Labor Day is a great time to recognize we can help workers by breaking down barriers to labor mobility and empowering them to "vote with their feet": both domestically and through international migration: reason.com/volokh/2025/...

Noticed again today in a discussion with chatGPT that there is a pull towards genericity. That pull also exists in academia—the pull to express things in standard conventional ways. It’s valuable to have such conventions but they can also encourage thoughtlessness and stifle creativity.

A good piece about the policy challenges of ICE masking and activist efforts to identify immigration agents (with great quotes from @jakelaperruque.bsky.social). www.politico.com/news/2025/08...

Little preview for my National Security Lawyering students of what we'll be discussing in class today.

@msmith750.bsky.social isn’t the only one who can document campus wildlife.

This may be because I’m at the beginning of my teaching career and it’s all new to me, but I’m not gloomy about having to adapt my teaching to the powerful new tools my students have access to. I didn’t ask for it (neither did they), but it’s our reality and my job is to adapt to it.

I'm pleased to be publishing this paper in the Rutgers University Law Review Commentaries. Looking forward to working with the editors to get it in its final form. Comments welcome in the meantime!

A cool opportunity for law students: The Student Journal of Information Privacy Law at Maine Law School seeks student-authored papers for publication. More details here: app.scholasticahq.com/conversation...

ODNI has released two FISC opinions regarding a new counternarcotics certification for FISA Section 702. The certification will allow CIA & NSA to collect communications related to international narcotics trafficking from non-Americans located abroad without a warrant. www.intel.gov/ic-on-the-re...

I’m trying to imagine going through months of training to become an ATF agent, only to be turned into a beat cop in DC because crime is ostensibly out of control and then *while that’s happening* the top law enforcement official in DC decides that certain gun crimes won’t be prosecuted in DC.

I had a few students come up to me at their oath ceremony tonight to let me know how cool it is to see professors with tattoos and piercings and how it makes them feel better about their own. I thought that was pretty neat. Life is short. Be yourself.

Can states make it a crime for ICE to wear masks while operating in their jurisdictions, as several are now attempting to do? No, I argue in a new draft essay. But there are other tools at their disposal to discourage the practice. Check out the full paper on SSRN! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Last I recall, general checkpoint vehicle stops are presumptively unconstitutional.

Just spent an hour searching for an authoritative source to support the proposition that USPS drivers are required to have a driver's license, just so I could add the parenthetical at the end of this paragraph.

This is a great article! I highly recommend it to law journal editors (who can expect me to refer to it throughout the editing process).