Josh Blackman is a constitutional law professor at the South Texas College of Law Houston and the President of the Harlan Institute. Follow him @JoshMBlackman.
Josh Blackman
Latest from Josh Blackman
Justice Thomas Takes One For The Team in Borden v. U.S.
"This case forces us to choose between aggravating a past error and committing a new one. I must choose the former."
Update on Predicting SCOTUS Assignments for the November Sitting
Justice Kagan wrote Borden. The Chief likely has the Obamacare case, and Justice Alito likely has Fulton.
11th Circuit Divides About Whether Design of Palm Beach Mansion is Protected by the First Amendment
We "affirm on the First Amendment claim because there was no great likelihood that some sort of message would be understood by those who viewed Burns's new beachfront mansion"
Over the past year, the Supreme Court Public Information Office "Clipped Approximately 10,000 News Articles Related to the Court and the Justices, Roughly Half of Them Tweets"
I am horrified to think there are 5,000 tweets worth clipping for the Justices.
Law Professor Skipped Teaching Plessy v. Ferguson, Edited Dred Scott to Two Paragraphs
“I wasn’t comfortable giving [Taney's] words to my students because I was afraid it would hurt them and destroy the kind of community I want to foster in class.”
Biden v. Garland: When DOJ Takes Positions the President Disagrees With.
Biden and Garland are not on the same page about Puerto Rico, E. Jean Carroll, the Mueller Memo, and gag orders of the press.
Conversations with the Sixth Circuit: An Interview with Judge Danny Boggs
For once, the clerk interviews his judge!
Predicting SCOTUS Assignments for the November Sitting
Who will write Fulton and the Obamacare case?
ACLU Attorney who Argued Skokie Nazi Case: "Liberals are leaving the First Amendment behind."
The N.Y. Times published a detailed analysis about the ACLU"s "Identity Crisis."
The Shortsighted Complaint at Stanford Law School
This attempt at a "Gotcha" moment backfired.
"The 'Essential' Free Exercise Clause" Has Been Published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
124 pages will take you from the onset of the pandemic through Tandom v. Newsom
Rutgers Law School SBA Tried to Force Student Organizations to Host Events on Critical Racial Theory
Fortunately, the SBA backed down after FIRE intervened.
Announcing A Tri-Journal Note Exchange Between the NYU Journal of Law & Liberty, the Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Texas Review of Law & Politics
I commend the journals for this forward-thinking move, and encourage other law schools to establish journals for conservative, libertarian, textualist, originalist, and classical liberal scholarship.
The Risks When Law School Deans Go Woke
Deans who go woke will alienate conservative donors. Deans who refuse to go woke will alienate progressive faculties and students.
New York is considering adopting ABA Model Rule 8.4(g)
I submitted a comment with Professors Volokh and Strossen.
The Fifth Circuit Has Launched a YouTube Channel for Oral Arguments
For the past month, the Fifth Circuit has posted oral argument audio on YouTube.
Justice Sotomayor Expurgates The Word "Alien" From a Justice Marshall Decision
This trend towards legal newspeak troubles me. Any language--past or present--that offends some must be canceled.
DOJ Releases Redacted OLC Opinion Following Review of the Special Counsel's Report
"Accordingly, were there no constitutional barrier, we would recommend, under the Principles of Federal Prosecution, that you decline to commence such a prosecution."
John Marshall Law School Cancels John Marshall
"Despite Chief Justice Marshall’s legacy as one of the nation’s most significant U.S. Supreme Court justices, the newly discovered research regarding his role as a slave trader, slave owner of hundreds of slaves, pro-slavery jurisprudence, and racist views render him a highly inappropriate namesake for the Law School.”
Have Senate Republicans Determined That Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson Poses Less of a Threat Than Justice Leondra Kruger?
KBJ's confirmation hearing was surprisingly uneventful, and two SJC Republicans voted for her.
My New Eight-Display Workstation with 4K and UltraWide Monitors
I added a 49" 32:9 Ultrawide HDR Display, and two 4K 32" Ergo Monitors.
Texas's Fetal Heartbeat Bill Has Many Private Attorneys General, But Lacks a Public Attorney General
The federal courts will lack jurisdiction over pre-enforcement suits against state officials.
