Browse Articles

Technology

A Right to a Human Decision

Recent advances in computational technologies have spurred anxiety about a shift of power from human to machine decision makers. From welfare and employment to bail and other risk assessments, state actors increasingly lean on machine-learning tools …

Constitutionalism in Unexpected Places

Before, during, and after the ratification of the Federal Constitution of 1787, Americans believed that they were governed under an unwritten constitution, a constitution that described an arrangement of power, confirmed ancient rights, and …

Self-Portrait in a Complex Mirror: Reflections on The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years by John Paul Stevens

Immediately after his death last year, Justice John Paul Stevens received a number of moving eulogies, several by former law clerks published in the Harvard Law Review, along with a tribute from Chief Justice Roberts..

Criminal Justice

Redefining the Relationship Between Stone and AEDPA

This Note challenges the current conception of the availability of federal habeas corpus relief for state prisoners claiming a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Since the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Stone v. Powell, federal courts have …

Antitrust, Corporate Law, Finance & Banking

The New Gatekeepers: Private Firms as Public Enforcers

The world’s largest businesses must routinely police other businesses. By public mandate, Facebook monitors app developers’ privacy safeguards, Citibank audits call centers for deceptive sales practices, and Exxon reviews offshore oil platforms’ …

Constitutional Powers, International Law

Congressional Administration of Foreign Affairs

Longstanding debates over the allocation of foreign affairs power between Congress and the President have reached a stalemate. Wherever the formal line between Congress and the President’s powers is drawn, it is well established that, as a …

Civil Procedure

Intervention

Ever since the late 1960s, many lower federal courts have interpreted the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to give outsiders broad rights to become parties to pending lawsuits. Intervention of this sort affects the dynamics of a lot of cases, …

Bound Electors

In a decision hailed as “a masterpiece of historical analysis and originalist reasoning,” the Tenth Circuit recently held that the Constitution prevents a state from binding its presidential electors to vote for the winner of the state’s popular …

Civil Procedure, Federal Courts

Colorado River Abstention: A Practical Reassessment

When duplicative civil suits proceed simultaneously in both state and federal court, a waste of resources is bound to occur. Nevertheless, the Supreme Court has maintained that federal courts must typically retain jurisdiction over such concurrent …

Criminal Law, State Law & Federalism

Statutory Federalism and Criminal Law

Federal law regularly incorporates state law as its own. And it often does so dynamically so that future changes to state laws affect how federal law will apply. For example, federal law protects against deprivations of property, but states largely …

Constitutional Powers, Jurisprudence Theory

Historical Gloss, Madisonian Liquidation, and the Originalism Debate

The U.S. Constitution is old, relatively brief, and very difficult to amend. In its original form, the Constitution was primarily a framework for a new national government, and for 230 years the national government has operated under that framework …

Constitutional Law, International Law

Rejoining Treaties

Historical practice supports the conclusion that the President can unilaterally withdraw the United States from treaties which an earlier President joined with the advice and consent of two-thirds of the Senate, at least as long as this withdrawal …

The Miseducation of Free Speech

Walking Out the Schoolhouse Gates

Fill in the Blank: Compelling Student Speech on Religion

The Great Unfulfilled Promise of Tinker

Foreword: Tinker at 50

Unshackling the Due Process Rights of Asylum-Seekers

Speech Across Borders

Federalism, Metropolitanism, and the Problem of States