new episode out today! professor Luke Ferguson joins us to talk about the history of constitutional law, how the Supreme Court gutted the project of reconstruction, and why the left should treat the law as a site of struggle 👇 www.patreon.com/posts/159412...

Will really hits the correct analysis here, the republicans are the only ones in America that treat the Constitution as a living document, the Dems give it too much deference as a dead document. Legal realism wins again.

Constitutions evolve & remain a site of struggle for today’s Left, as explored on @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social’s chat with @lucienferguson.bsky.social on Reconstruction’s legacy. Loved considering notions of freedom as historically and economically contingent. #marxwasright #socialism #philosophy

Good piece, happy to see my article Ending Forced Labor in ICE Detention Centers cited. Very bleak that six years later the government has still done nothing to stop private prison contractors from profiting from forced labor. scholar.law.colorado.edu/faculty-arti...

On the personal news front: this fall I'll be teaching Constitutional Law and the First Amendment as an Assistant Professor of Law at Cleveland State University. I'm excited to go back home to northeast Ohio and to teach in the same communities that invested so much in teaching me.

Redemption was a STRUGGLE between multiracial democracy and white supremacy. It's easy to see Jim Crow at the end of that struggle and despair in this 2nd Redemption. But the outcome of struggle is not foreordained. The work of building a pro-democracy mass politics remains urgent and essential.

Watching history repeat itself is indeed disheartening. The Callais decision is going to frustrate American democracy for decades to come. I gave some initial thought about the decision’s meaning in this coverage for NPR. www.npr.org/2026/04/29/n...

With Gerry Crow now apparently federal law, it’s all the more important that litigants take a hard look at whether partisan advantage is actually a legitimate governmental interest under the laws of their state. My argument that it’s *not*: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

Andrew Johnson, Sen. Garret Davis of Kentucky, and every other person who insisted that the politics of Reconstruction privileged persons of color would be very proud of this Supreme Court.

Thanks to @lpeproject.bsky.social for including my work and @charlottegarden.bsky.social 's joint work on this list of must read articles and upcoming scholarship. There is a lot of good stuff on this list, and a lot of it is very timely.

Food justice! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Working on newspaper reaction to the override of the Johnson veto of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Amazing how often this sentence occurs when journalists describe the bill. "That all persons born in the United States are citizens of the United States."

Great writeup in @jotwell.bsky.social on Jade Craig's important piece, "Struggle Against the Water"! property.jotwell.com/fairer-housi...

Let’s crack this open. @unlawfulentries.bsky.social

Justice Robert Jackson, Opening Statement at the International Military Tribunal, November 21, 1945 voicesofdemocracy.umd.edu/wp-content/u...

Thursday April 9 SDP Webinar with Ringhand, Seifter, and Vladeck: “Can and Will Courts Ensure Free and Fair Elections in 2026?” electionlawblog.org?p=155301

The article I wrote last summer is now out with the Cardozo Law review. Thanks to the terrific editors and to those who gave feedback on the draft! www.linkedin.com/posts/cardoz...

Excited to present "Mapping Malfeasance" (forthcoming with Indiana L.J.) today at MSU as part of @yeargain.bsky.social's Democracy and Public Law WIP Conference with some fantastic state and local gov scholars! Draft is here: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn... Comments and critique very welcome ✨

The good folks at @theunpopulist.net gave me an opportunity to refresh my birthright citizenship piece from last year in honor of tomorrow's arguments. New bucket list item: getting the word "retconning" published. www.theunpopulist.net/p/every-argu...

Response to that weird Moyn thing criticizing me, @evanbernick.bsky.social @anthonymkreis.bsky.social @jedshug.bsky.social et al for being able to think that the attack on birthright citizenship is a political hack job AND that its legal arguments can be refuted balkin.blogspot.com/2026/03/poli...

The final version of Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? II is now at Oxford University Press. The most comprehensive study of democratic decline and resilience. Thanks to Mark Tushnet, Sandy Levinson, and Antonia Baraggia. All publicity is good. TOC here. balkin.blogspot.com/2026/03/cons...

My latest, for @statecourtreport.org, about two important cases making their way through Kansas state courts, the connection between bodily autonomy and trans rights, and how state constitutions are being asked to meet the moment. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

Half the books in our field are or should be dedicated to Sandy.

Thrilled to share that my latest, "Law Enforcement Gang Designations" will be published in volume 112 of the Virginia Law Review. Draft is up on SSRN, comments welcome! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Very happy to announce that "Mapping Malfeasance" is now forthcoming with the Indiana Law Journal! I argue that partisan intent is sufficient to invalidate an election map under under any state's constitution. @ssrn.bsky.social link: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn...

‘A really really big decision’: The court cases looming over the midterms politi.co/4rvfsEN via @politico.com

“The doorkeeper recognizes that the man has reached his end, and, to let his failing senses catch the words, roars in his ear: “No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you. I am now going to shut it.”

Repealing anti-gerrymandering laws is shameful. But my research shows it also can't prevent state constitutional challenges to map manipulation. I discuss this and other findings in my new paper, "Mapping Malfeasance"—now available for download on SSRN and looking for a home. t.co/NHOr0Y5hWH

Now up on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... Just in time to think about Section 2 VRA compliance minority-majority districting and the 14th/15th amendments. 👀

Thank you!

I've posted my new paper, "Mapping Malfeasance," on SSRN. I survey all fifty state constitutions to develop a general standard for distinguishing legal from illegal maps. Comments and criticisms are very welcome. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

My forthcoming article, "Contesting State Capture" (Cardozo L. Rev.), was reviewed in JOTWELL. My sincerest thanks to Rebecca Zietlow for her insightful and generous commentary!

Jotwell Conlaw: Rebecca Zietlow, State Constitutions As A Bulwark Against Oligarchy, JOTWELL (April 30, 2025) (reviewing Lucien Ferguson, Contesting State Capture, 46 Cardozo L. Rev. __ (forthcoming, 2025), available at SSRN (Feb, 6, 2025)), conlaw.jotwell.com/state-consti....

In more good @chicagokentlaw.bsky.social hiring news, I see that @lucienferguson.bsky.social has made it Bluesky-bio official, too. So delighted you'll be joining us!

Excited to announce that I'll be joining the faculty at the University of Oklahoma College of Law starting in the fall! I'm looking forward to joining a great group of faculty and students, though I will certainly miss my students and colleagues at St. Mary's!

This "immediate cancellation" violates the law. If the Admin thinks Columbia has violated Title VI by being deliberately indifferent to antisemitic harassment, it has to give Columbia a chance for a hearing first, make findings on the record, & wait 30 days. www.nytimes.com/live/2025/03...

SSRN, you flatter me! Apparently, The Sound of the Beast is a "Recent Top Paper" in Law & Literature and Legal Anthropology: Criminal Law. Grateful for the interest—44 downloads and counting. Wow!! Check it out here: ssrn.com/abstract=509....

**Zoom in TODAY @ 1:00 PM EST** Third webinar in @barrettpitner.bsky.social's crucially important Reconstructionism Project. Featuring inimitable Profs. @sheryllcashin.bsky.social and @etiennetoussaint.bsky.social, and also me, on teaching Reconstruction and the law. Register below 🔽🔽🔽

Join us on Wednesday, March 5, at 1 PM EST for a critical discussion on "The Importance of Teaching Reconstruction and the Law Today" with myself, Lucien Ferguson, and Sheryll Cashin. Don’t miss this conversation. Register here: www.americanbar.org/events-cle/m...

With our Fall 2025 schedule posted, I’m very happy that I’ll be teaching State Constitutional Law—which I *think* is the first time in the Michigan State University College of Law’s 134-year history that such a course will be offered.