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!

Extremely interesting! First state high ct to rule that Section 230 (CDA) does not provide immunity for tech. Implications for a lot of manufacturers moving fwd + huge win for consumer safety! Meta must now face the MA AG. www.cnbc.com/amp/2026/04/...

I reviewed @maybell.bsky.social's forthcoming article, Gossip, in Jotwell @jotwell.bsky.social: legalpro.jotwell.com/lady-whistle...

AIs can ‘memorize’ data they shouldn’t. Can they be forced to forget? New tool could help researchers probe how models “unlearn” sensitive training material. | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

My article, Factual Immunity, is forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review. I argue that, alongside qualified immunity, some courts in constitutional tort suits employ what I call factual immunity by crediting officer testimony & discounting plaintiffs’ stories at summary judgment when QI is raised.

Manipulating text, history, and precedent, combined with an understanding that those factors rarely carry the day in important constitutional cases, is the landscape legal scholars have to navigate. Balancing which approach should be emphasized is case specific. www.dorfonlaw.org/2026/03/broc...

Jotwell Health: Maya Manian, Public Health Law, Social Movements, and the Feminist Remaking of AIDS, JOTWELL (March 30, 2026) (reviewing Aziza Ahmed, Risk and Resistance: How Feminists Transformed the Law and Science of AIDS (2025)), health.jotwell.com/public-healt....

My state constitutional law casebook, which I coauthored with Marcus Garson and Jon Marshfield, is now out! I’m excited to be (mostly) done (though the teachers manual is forthcoming) and to share this with everyone. If you have any questions about the book or might consider adopting it, reach out!

Yvette Lindgren & I have a new essay recently accepted by Southern California Law Review! "The Post-Dobbs Abortion Irony" explores how abortion bans only seem to be chilling medically necessary abortions while everyday abortions are increasing everywhere. 1/4 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

I just got my copy of State Constitutional Law, by @yeargain.bsky.social, Marcus Gadson, and Jonathan Marshfield! Congratulations on getting it to the finish line! Looking forward to using it when I teach state constitutional law next fall!

Friends in the inheritance law world, I'm delighted to announce the Sixth Biennial Critical Trusts and Estates Conference this coming October 9-10. We're hosting at Richmond Law and looking forward to a fantastic conference. Feel free to message me with questions! 🎉💰🎩⚖️

Celebrate with me 🥳🎊⭐️! I've turned in the last set of chapter proofs before my book goes into typesetting. Here’s the cover, which I love.

I landed my dream job and my family will be moving to Florida this summer. I decided to write a bit about my journey. open.substack.com/pub/victoria...

Legal writers: I've posted to SSRN a short user's guide about how to use the Zotero citation manager and its Word plugin to automatically generate Bluebook citations that are 95%* compliant. The paper explains which fields to use for which type of source, and examples of generated citations.

Was a pleasure visiting with Prof Myriam Gilles’ Adv Torts /Prod Liability Class today at Northwestern Law. I lectured on “AI Companion Chatbots & products liability”. Many thanks to Prof Gilles for the invitation and her class for the excellent discussion.

Real scholarship requires the constant internal battle with yourself to create, refine, abandon, improve, and adapt your ideas. Someday soon, LLMs will likely be able to produce a quality literature review. But they cannot replicate the research and writing process of academic inquiry. /end

The big draw into legal academia for early career scholars such as myself *is* the writing. You get to think about topics that excite you (yay!), & share them with the world by writing (yay!) Yes, writing can often be a slog but anything worth it is. There’s a romance that AI simply robs you of.

There are a good many things in life that we cannot prevent from happening. This is not one of them. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Jotwell IP: David Fagundes, Inspiration versus Authorship, JOTWELL (March 3, 2026) (reviewing Mark A. Lemley, Authoring While Dead, 59 Ga. L. Rev. (2025)), ip.jotwell.com/inspiration-....

🧵This morning the Supreme Court hears oral argument in US v. Hemani, over the federal ban on gun possession by illegal drug users. I'll live-post here. w/ several 2nd Am scholars, I filed an amicus brief arguing lawmakers can make categorical judgments. ⬇️ www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24...

Federal agencies generally don’t consider constitutional challenges to statutory provisions in rulemakings or adjudications. In a new paper (on SSRN and forthcoming in U. Chi. L. Rev.), I explain why agencies can—and should—consider those challenges. Comments welcome! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....