Just posted "Deportation in the Deep State" to SSRN, comments welcome! Abstract/summary below. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Each year, 2.7 million jail admissions are for misdemeanor charges. Yes, this includes charges for behaviors like jaywalking or even sitting on a sidewalk.

In today's SCOTUS oral argument, Justice Barrett asked about how Trump's rationales for denying birthright citizenship to children of illegal migrants would also deny it to many ex-slaves. SG Sauer's answer on crucial issue was factually wrong. See my explanation here: reason.com/volokh/2026/...

Pretty momentous day for anyone who doesn’t think we landed on the moon in 1969

Alito seems to be saying that they can invent new exceptions by analogy, which sounds a lot like living constitutionalism

Hot off the presses!

Presenting “Sentencing Immigrants” by Professor Eric S. Fish (@ericfish.bsky.social) of the University of California at Davis School of Law (@ucdavislaw.bsky.social). Read more here: southerncalifornialawreview.com/2026/03/26/s...

On Pranjal Drall & @samuelmoyn.bsky.social essays in Balkinization criticizing me, @gowder.io @anthonymkreis.bsky.social & @evanbernick.bsky.social I think they are wrong about 2 big points, but I think they may be right about an implicit 3d point. It should have been directed only at Evan & me.

This is a self-defeating way of approaching legal politics. Of course Supreme Court decisions are political in a broad sense. But the legal arguments still matter. Decisions cost the Court more legitimacy if they are openly lawless. Why cede the terrain and give up arguments from legal authority?

According to documents filed this morning by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, ICE has been lying for a year — not only to the public, but to the courts and to prosecutors — about being authorized to make arrests at 26 Federal Plaza and other immigration courts. (1/2)

The U.S. runs the largest immigration detention system in the world. But what law actually protects people inside it? A Harvard Law Review article by @Das_Alina provides an alarming answer. 🧵

RIP Habermas. To honor his memory, I will spend the day being communicatively rational in the lifeworld.

Can holistic criminal justice survive algorithmic governance? Another new 📄 of mine, “Anti-Holistic Algorithms,” now out with the @vandylaw.bsky.social Vanderbilt Law Review, grapples with this question (ssrn: shorturl.at/eyZhu) abstract 👇 & short thread 1/6

Robynn Cox and I have a new paper! It's about the history of predictive algorithms in criminal justice, back in the 1920s-1950s. This paper is the result of five years of research and we're so happy to see it out. 🧵 1/

Now forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review, my latest work rethinks how information should get shared in criminal cases, and why we need to look beyond the celebrated Brady doctrine if we are serious about improving the fairness of criminal discovery. 🧵🔽

Read the outstanding law review article by Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social linked in the piece—GJ reform is an absolutely necessary bulwark against tyranny. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...

Thrilled to share that 𝐺𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 has found a home with the Yale Law Journal. This piece examines parental liability regimes and parental rights, and how they are connected by a shared logic that harms children and families. Thank you to all those who read drafts and offered feedback!

Bob Dylan needs to do the right thing and give his Nobel Prize to Cormac Mccarthy

Fish & Keller on the Crime of Undocumented Presence Eric S. Fish (University of California, Davis - School of Law) & Doug Keller have posted Fabricating the Crime of Undocumented Presence on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2025, the Trump Administration’s Office of Legal Counsel declared that it is…

Just posted a draft law review article written with @dkeller.bsky.social. It concerns the Trump Administration's efforts to turn being an undocumented immigrant into a permanent criminal status. Available here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Kudos to @ucirvinelaw.bsky.social L.Rev. for doing this. And to @jessicasilbey.bsky.social

My latest article, Policing Children’s Data, is out today. It offers a comprehensive look at how law enforcement accesses children’s digital information and challenges the assumption that parental consent is enough to protect kids’ privacy. 📖 Read more: wustllawreview.org/2025/11/12/p...

time to update the ol’ jury nullification lecture

My new essay is in the University of Chicago Law Review Online: “Children and the Cars That Watch Them.” Autonomous vehicles promise freedom for kids, but also bring unprecedented surveillance. Parental consent isn’t enough; we need substantive limits. lawreview.uchicago.edu/online-archi...

Today, I spoke w/Chesa Boudin and @ericfish.bsky.social about a new law review article they've authored. They explore how Public Defenders can expand their power in and out of the courtroom so they can be a greater check on the other branches. open.spotify.com/episode/7Hbi...

Alas—he went without us! youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs

TX Gov. Abbott has been test running this for the past few years. To understand what this might look like nationwide, we need to look to “Operation Lone Star.” Sharing more below

Fresh on SSRN, my new article (with Chesa Boudin) brings defense lawyers into the criminal law separation-of-powers debate. It proposes understanding defense counsel as embodying a sui generis “defense power,” distinct from legislative, judicial, and executive power. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

this year’s NCAA tournament is a great illustration of how the free market locks in inequality

The concern over Hillary Clinton’s email account only gets funnier with time

This will be in tomorrow's Border Update but deserves its own separate post: Profiles of 15 young Venezuelan men shipped off to El Salvador's prisons last Saturday. None of them seem to be gang members—not at all. Post is here, with links to sources: adamisacson.com/who-did-the-...

Over at SCOTUS, Justices Sotomayor and Gorsuch encourage defense counsel to keep pushing the originalist argument that misdemeanor arrests require a warrant if the crime is not committed in an officer's presence. supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p... #N

I am a former incarcerated firefighter. I served in a California fire camp from 2009 to 2012. Misinformation is afire on the internet, so here are facts about the prison firefighter program, all in one place. A thread.

My problem with “criminal legal system” is that the system involves even less law than it does justice. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/the...

"Diversion" = "send a money order to the cops who cited you, via us (the DA)." Feels like: (1) not really "diversion." (2) maybe RICO-ish? (3) basically the plot of REBEL RIDGE (2024)

Chesa and I appeared on @pdefenselesspod.bsky.social to discuss our new article on pretrial criminal adjudication! SSRN link here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It continues to amaze me that everyone has collectively decided Johnnie Cochran said “if the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.” The theme of his closing was “if it doesn’t fit, you must acquit.” He never uttered the word “glove.”

Pardon expires at midnight. Hunter has four hours to get to the nearest national park and commit every crime.

There's a good argument to be made that mass deportations have been going on for more than 30 years. The first year that formal deportations rose above 50,000 in a single year was 1995. Within three years, deportations rose to 174,000. By 2003, they were above 211,000 a year.

Passing the bar at 17 is of course impressive, but I’m disturbed by the idea that this teenager is now going to be prosecuting and incarcerating people. Odd that no one in the article sees an issue with high school age prosecutors. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/19/u...

Just posted "Towards Pretrial Criminal Adjudication" (coauthored with Chesa Boudin, who is sadly not on Bluesky) to SSRN (papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....), forthcoming in the Boston College Law Review. In it we argue for more robust pretrial adjudication in the criminal justice system. (1/4)

My child is now in a phase where he goes around the house taking bookmarks out of books and handing them to me

Feels like the viruses are playing 4D chess…

Nominating Gaetz and Gabbard, and the apparent recess plan, is pretty much Trump picking up where he left off on January 6th. Push as far as you can and see what you can get away with. Push until they say no. Disastrous for our institutions, sure. But unsurprising from Trump.

The logistics of expelling so many people are mind boggling, even if they disregard the law. How do they even organize this many flights to places like Venezuela, Haiti, Ukraine?

Resisting Mass Immigrant Prosecutions is out in print: yalelawjournal.org/article/resi... Thanks to everyone who helped with it!

Just walked into a brewery called “hoi polloi” wearing a 3 piece suit. We’ll see how this goes…

Should be required reading for all public defenders!