Preventing abortions by... destroying the #1 tool to prevent abortions? www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

Want a short piece debunking "originalist" arguments that the 14th Amendment requires abortion criminalization? I got you. Forthcoming in the UC Davis Law Review Online. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

My horizons broaden every time I read a piece by my amazing UHLC colleague Andrew Lanham (who is unfortunately not on here—or anywhere). Just incredibly deep and rich insights at the intersection of social movements, racial justice, and national security from a fantastic legal historian.

“apparent ethnicity” is a cool new way to say race

Texas Law has a new academic fellowship program. Please share with any aspiring legal academics! (The first fellow started this summer and I can say the level of mentorship, support, and inclusion of fellows is exceptional)

Hey Bluesky! Little late to the joining game, but excited to be here. I'm an appellate attorney with an interest in legal scholarship, and my writing focuses on state supreme courts, state constitutions, and judicial selection.

This is how I know I’ve made it! I’m so excited to join this class run by the amazing @yuvrajjoshi.bsky.social, alongside such incredible scholars.

Join an amazing group of scholars at UH incl. @chrismirasola.bsky.social @leahfowler.bsky.social @nikenberger.bsky.social @petersalib.bsky.social @lauraportuondo.bsky.social @jessiebregant.bsky.social @amangebru.bsky.social @dfroomkin.bsky.social and more with better things to do than Bluesky!

UH Law Center is hiring this year! - 3 entry-level, TT in crim, employment/labor, & torts - 1 clinical in lawyering skills - 1 tenured position in health law Teach fantastic students with supportive colleagues! Reach out with any Qs!

Brought to you by a constitutional equality jurisprudence that deems every burden on religious conservatives animus, and every protection of women and LGBTQ+ people as optional.

Calling all aspiring law profs: Houston is hiring! Come join a great scholarly community in a vibrant city (and work with me 🤠). We are hiring in: criminal law, employment/labor law, tort law, legal research/writing, and health law. Please reach out with any questions or interest!

This is an important religious liberty challenge advancing in the Kentucky state courts. There’s a growing literature discussing the arguments developed in this case and in similar litigation in Indiana. (See eg papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....)

🚨🚨 CfP for the Inaugural Association for Law and Political Economy (ALPE) Conference is out!!! LPE is moving the central locus of coordination away from a foundation-funded model to a dues-paying membership organization. lawandpoliticaleconomy.org 🚨🚨

We do this in more and more places in D.C., and it works! (Unsurprisingly.)

Chiming in once again that sex-segregation is not a very good solution to privacy or safety concerns! Please just build a nicer bathroom for everyone. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

BREAKING: The Supreme Court takes up cases over Idaho and West Virginia’s anti-trans sports bans for next term, along with three other cases.

The irony of this is that making a woman call herself “Mr.” and “he/him” seems far more likely to raise children’s awareness of trans people than simply leaving this woman alone.

1. Shockingly bad decision out from the Eleventh Circuit today saying that a transgender woman has no 1A right as a public school teacher to identify herself as "Ms." or use she/her pronouns. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

BREAKING: Here is the opinion: www.wicourts.gov/sc/opinion/D...

On this dumpster-fire of a decision day, it is such a bright spot to see my work reviewed by the incisive @leahlitman.bsky.social. I'm grateful for her generous and thoughtful engagement.

This is an important point. The Court's rapidly expanding free exercise jurisprudence virtually never employs historical reasoning bc the history is bad for them.

The Supreme Court just explicitly held, for the first time since it's 1990 decision in Smith, that a neutral and generally applicable law is subject to strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause. This "exception" is a huge development that bodes very badly for the future of public education.

Some have reasonably worried that disempowering SCOTUS might threaten the authority of lower courts, which have been a final backstop on a lawless exec. But SCOTUS just used its power to eliminate this backstop itself by disempowering lower courts. IMO the case for reform has never been clearer.

President issues an executive order: “The free exercise of religion is banned.” Can the law be struck down? Or does every person have to sue to prevent it being applied to them? I am genuinely baffled.

Seems like the Supreme Court just held that it is the only federal court with meaningful remedial power?

This is the real danger with the Court’s present power. It’s not just that the Court won’t enforce important rights; it won’t let anyone else do it either.

🚨By a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court ALLOWS states to defund Planned Parenthood, holding that Medicaid does not give patients a right to obtain care from its providers. All three liberals dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Not timely, but rereading the Catholic Charities case: Am I crazy or does this language suggest that exemptions for "houses of worship" violate the establishment clause bc not all religions have houses of worship?

On the three year anniversary of Dobbs, it's important to remember that all of this is true: - The opinion has caused terrible suffering. - Abortion numbers are higher than they have been in years. - The antiabortion movement is losing over and over again. - Abortion is more popular than ever. /1

Today marks 3 years since the fall of Roe v. Wade Now, for most women on probation and parole, the ability to receive abortion care depends solely on getting *permission* to travel out of state from an officer Access to basic health care should not be in the hands of officers

New abortion data is out from the Society for Family Planning's #WeCount study. And, once again, we see that abortion numbers keep going up post-Dobbs. /1

According to federal statistics, 96% of anonymous calls to child abuse hotlines are deemed baseless after an investigation. New York has passed a bill banning these types of anonymous complaints. Gov. Kathy Hochul is expected to sign the legislation.

This reasoning suggests that overt gender stereotyping is almost always permissible under sex equality law. It is shocking and inconsistent with precedent.

Save the Date: the inaugural Association of Law and Political Economy conference will be taking place *February 5-7, 2026* at the University of Richmond School of Law. And keep an eye out for the CFP this later this summer!

Follow my brilliant colleague, @chrismirasola.bsky.social! He is an expert in domestic use of the military, among other (unfortunately) relevant Qs of presidential power.

This is esp bad given the most-favored-nation (MFN) rule that applies in free exercise cases. (1/2)

Revoking the EMTALA guidance for abortion was expected and will have a tiny impact, but we should nevertheless be horrified that Republicans have fought so hard to defend abortion bans that prohibit women from accessing emergency abortions. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/03/u...

What happens to women when they are denied an abortion? Short run: their risk of death rises. A full 15 years later, they experience: more health issues, lower attainment, reduced labor-force participation, higher single motherhood, higher poverty, + greater government assistance

The fact that the Supreme Court on the shadow docket effectively overruled Humphrey’s Executor despite repeatedly reassuring us in prior opinions that it was doing so such thing tells you everything you need to know about Dobbs’ assurances that Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell are safe.

Behold: "Gendered Liberty" is officially published! www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-l...

In a shocking turn of events, Texas' abortion medication bill is dead, @shefali.bsky.social reports. This is a big deal: The anti-abortion movement was looking at this as a potential blueprint for blocking an extremely common abortion method. 19thnews.org/2025/05/texa...

Justice Gorsuch writes a passionate dissent that glosses over these differences, but is notably joined by Justice Thomas (a fair indicator that the rights and religious freedom frame is more appealing than empowering Native nations to govern). The coalition was large, but notably not Native-led.

The liberals in Hobby Lobby said RFRA codified pre-Smith precedent. The conservatives (per Alito) said RFRA provided more protection than pre-Smith precedents like Lee but apparently won’t extend the same principle to Lyng.

This really highlights how important Barrett's appointment was for supercharging religious liberty claims. If you look back at the COVID-19 cases, her appointment flipped a switch--the cases went from regularly losing to near universal success.

LPE-adjacent on my resume forever 💜