Generative AI turns out to be less generative than we think www.404media.co/elias-thorne...

My essay on the many ways that state courts interpret state constitutions in lockstep with federal doctrine is now live on the @statecourtreport.org! statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana...

I'm very happy to share that the AALS Section on State Constitutional Law has been approved and is now live! Thank you very much to everyone who supported this effort. We look forward to building a long-term infrastructure for state constitutional scholarship, study, and advocacy.

What a terrific end to my first year as a Jaharis Faculty Fellow. Wrapped up my Health Equity & the Law class. Now prepping for my Health AI class in the fall and FDA law in the spring!

A short piece I wrote for @statecourtreport.org on the problems "state capture" poses for state and local government, and how state constitutions might be used to prevent them. statecourtreport.org/our-work/ana... Based on an article first published with @cardozolaw.bsky.social (link below).

Join us in congratulating our 2026 class of Health Law Scholars! ⭐️ Ximena Benavides Reverditto @drximebena.bsky.social ⭐️ Alexander Chen ⭐️ Yaron Covo ⭐️ Amy Saji @amysaji.bsky.social

In the Kansas Law Review: Anti-McCarthyism and the Right to “Fair and Just Treatment” in State Constitutions People treated unfairly during executive or legislative investigations often lack a remedy. But two state constitutions guarantee "fair and just treatment." papers.ssrn.com/abstract=687...

not sure if everyone can access this, but I just learned about some dramatic changes to SSRN from Steve Bainbridge's Substack. This is really bad; SSRN has been how I keep up with scholarship in my field from a variety of researchers www.stephenbainbridge.com/p/the-social...

For those who are considering going on the legal academic job market this fall, please keep me in mind as you put your materials together and finalize job talk papers this summer! I would be happy to look over these materials and provide suggestions, as well as to chat about the process!

3Ls and Recent Law Grads: Do you like state constitutional law? Appellate advocacy? Impact litigation? Apply for a sponsorship opportunity to work with the ACLU's State Supreme Court Initiative as a Legal Fellow! www.aclu.org/careers/appl...

First piece of the summer! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... I argue that the text of state constitutions and state courts' holistic interpretive methods warrant a balanced approach to rights, rather than all-or-nothing adjudication. This may encourage a richer doctrine of substantive due process.

“Those of us outside of the AI industry don’t know what rules they are following. That’s not a black box. It’s just a policy decision.” techpolicy.press/the-black-bo... Or: it’s a remediable black box.

Reviewers in two groups were given identical resumes for Emily Clarke and James Clarke and told they had used AI. Emily's was 2x as likely to raise doubts about competence. "She can't even write a CV herself." But James "just needed a bit of help." fortune.com/2026/05/10/i...

Emerging from lurk to drop the final version of Separation of Copyright Powers, my new explainer on all the legal and historical puzzle boxes surrounding the administration's attempt to take over the Library of Congress and the Copyright Office. A quick summary... 1/ papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Just posted "'Westminster Quibbles': The Antimony of Text and Purpose in 18c Anglo-American Legal Culture." The brief essay argues that (1) law had independent force in shaping elite decisionmaking; and (2) today's debates re text vs purpose go back a very long way. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Good day to read @sbagen.bsky.social on slush funds … papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

New draft from me: Translating "Substantive Due Process" into State Constitutional Parlance, forthcoming in the Jacksonville University Law Review. The point of the piece is pretty straightforward: when people talk about "substantive due process" in state constitutions, I don't know what that means.

The US government is working to extricate some Americans who had potentially problematic exposures to suspected #Ebola #Bundibugyo in DRC. But it won’t talk about it. When I and other journalists asked during a #CDC press conference, we got no answers. www.statnews.com/2026/05/17/i...

It was not such a Herculean effort—but two years ago I set out to determine whether William Howard Taft really called Huey Long "the most brilliant lawyer that ever practiced before the United States Supreme Court." I was incredulous upon first reading it but it's EVERYWHERE—and total bullshit. 🧵

Glad to see @drtedros.who.int & @who.int taking decisive action to declare the #Ebola outbreak in #DRC a #PHEIC. Per the IHR, the criteria are 1. Serious event 2. Risk of international spread 3. Requires a coordinated international response 4. The event is unusual www.who.int/news/item/17...

1890: S.S. Calhoon, the President of the Mississippi Constitutional Convention, said the Black race was "unfit to rule," and "mean[s] stagnation, the enslavement of woman, the brutilization of man, animal savagery, universal ruin." Referring to Thompson's "reign of terror" is just updated language.

Beginning of semester / End of semester

this is the closest I've ever come to actually suggesting a "one neat trick" suggestion for anything, but I'm so serious here. the Virginia Constitution gives the legislature the power to set retirement ages for judges "REGARDLESS OF THE TERM TO WHICH ELECTED OR APPOINTED." make it 54 right now.

There are two higher ed Bluskies right now:

This was a hard story to report. Newborns who don’t get a vitamin K shot are 81 times more likely to develop a condition where they bleed uncontrollably. But more and more families are declining the shot. And babies are dying. www.propublica.org/article/more...

Hey, law prof friends! I'm on the committee planning the pretenure faculty workshop for #AALS2027. We're thinking of speakers to address, of course, scholarship, teaching, and service. Interested in speaking? Got suggestions? DM me!

“The Editor has decided to retract this paper owing to concerns regarding discrepancies in the meta-analysis. These issues ultimately undermine the confidence the Editor can place in the validity of the analysis and resulting conclusions…” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New article with Michael J. Young and Barbara Evans in Neurology www.neurology.org/doi/10.1212/...

The final version of my article, "Requiring Written Bail Determinations" is now live! connecticutlawreview-law.media.uconn.edu/wp-content/u... I propose that all pretrial determinations that require defendants to post bail, or be held without bail, should be in writing.

A paper you are ready to live closely with and possibly come to hate, time management, and conversational Q&A with an eye toward clarity there. For much more: smithblawg.blogspot.com/2024/07/goin...

May I add--asking for insights from the faculty present on the weaknesses. Recognizing there are some subject experts in the room or at least experts on scholarship and leaning into them for genuine feedback. This can stoke the ego of some, lead to helpful feedback, and neutralize "attack" questions

This feels very obvious, but I'll state it anyways: knowing the weak points of your article, having thought about the questions you'll receive, and having thoughtful answers prepared. An interesting and well-thought-out article also helps.

A related, but very different question, #lawprof friends: What makes for a good entry-level screener?

Okay, #lawprof frens. A question for all of y’all: What are the characteristics of successful entry level job talks?

Now out in the American Criminal Law Review: "Big Box Carceralism." I trace the legal history of the retailer-backed campaign for bans on "organized retail crime." Retailers lied and fearmongered about the data, pushed bills through ALEC, and all to get slightly more specific conspiracy statutes. 🧵

Call for papers for a workshop on state public law here in Boulder on August 13-14! Abstracts due May 31. More info below!

“We find ourselves within a shaped subjectivity in which the human skills of taking time, of deliberation, of doing less, of deciding not to decide, of relating to one another, of creating meaning, all of that finds no more space.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

Any ideas why/when this shift occurred?

Very excited that @gelbach.bsky.social & I will be publishing "Bruen's Tenth Amendment Problem" in the @uchilrev.bsky.social! Our central arg is that Bruen's erasure of unexercised powers violates the 10th Am's preservation of existing State power. Comments welcome! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

By banning manipulative features, states can help assure children will “see AI for what it is: a set of algorithms with no emotions behind it.” techpolicy.press/how-ai-disru...

Hey, crim prof friends! It's almost the end of the year, so you know what that means... The return of CrimWIP. Yes, we're back for another summer of workshopping drafts on Zoom. Very chill, very informal, very useful. Interested? Let me know on here or send me an email from your .edu email address!