Emerson Wright

I love supervising students' seminar and independent research papers. I always learn so much! Sometimes I don't love what I learn, but.

When we teach our students how to be lawyers, we are also teaching them how to be human beings. These gloating coins reflect a problem within the profession.

One year I'll learn to give myself more time to grade. Not this year, aparrently. But one year I will.

It's impossible to overstate how much of what ICE is doing on the ground reflects this completely preposterous conflation of hostile *speech* and hostile *conduct.*

The First Amendment protects—or, at least, is supposed to protect—the former up and until it's a "true threat," which none of this is.

The Sandwich Trial is the only thing getting me through November grading right now.

Big day at U.S. District Court in D.C. where Sean Dunn, the D.C. Sandwich Guy, is on trial for misdemeanor assault of a federal officer.

Border Patrol agent Gregory Lairmore is on the stand narrating surveillance video of the sammie toss.

'Now he’s struck me with the sandwich,' Lairmore says.

D.A.A.G. Kambli: So, Your Honor, as one example: The privacy interest. That affects, um, how -- Judge Christen: Has it been a problem? D.A.A.G. Kambli: I can’t say there’s anything in the record with these individual plaintiffs. Judge Christen: Me either; I can’t find it. I have a related question. At oral argument in front of the district court, the government responded … there was no evidence associating transgender people with a lack of honesty or humility. … Is there any evidence associating transgender service members with a lack of integrity? D.A.A.G. Kambli: So, Your Honor, there’s no evidence in the record of that. Judge Christen: Okay. I’m going to ask the other four traits. I’m not trying to be pedantic, but I want to make sure I’m not missing anything because there are a lot of different studies. … Lack of selflessness? D.A.A.G. Kambli: So, Your Honor, there’s no evidence in the record on that. Judge Christen: Honor? D.A.A.G. Kambli: There’s no evidence in the record on that Judge Christen: Truth? D.A.A.G. Kambli: The same answer. Judge Christen: And the same answer for lack of discipline? D.A.A.G. Kambli: The same answer for that.

Yesterday in Shilling v. Trump (the 9th Circuit case about the military transgender ban), the government admitted that it has found no evidence to support any of the "traits" that the Secretary of Defense attributed to transgender servicemembers.

Ellie this is unconscionable. What are we doing?! good gracious.

This evening I am having dinner with the 1L professor who inspired me most and who taught me to love teaching. Such a fun full circle moment. <3

You’ll just be minding your own business when suddenly Martha-Ann

Spoken to loud applause at a teacher convention...in 1932, Germany

I teach at a private school that values academic freedom, but this kind of thing absolutely chills my classroom speech. This crap harms us all.

The TOA lists one (1) case and one (1) statute.

Although I'm tempted to word comments this way, I have so far avoided telling a student that they made the reader "endure" certain passages. Ellie, I gasped.

My students will recognize this use of "the reader." Number one lesson of legal writing is to remember who you are writing to.

I can say with certainty that in this case, the law school is not the problem.

The brief order notes that this "is not a ruling on the merits of the legal issues presented in the litigation," which of course, is something the court is free to say if it were to deny certain other emergency requests brought on the emergency docket.

Thanks, Ellie!

So excited that my article, Gender Affirming Rhetoric, will be published in the Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice this Fall.

I gotta start posting about Holly, my Florida yard squirrel queen, and Raquel, my ATL yard squirrel queen. For the website!

Google Chrome: Would you like to visit Scholastica? You uhh "visit it often."

There is absolutely a difference! Arguably not quite the midwest, but the squirrels at Western Kentucky University are the biggest, often albino, squirrels I've seen anywhere.

I am so thankful to teach law students for a million reasons, but these days I am just overwhelmingly grateful for the hope and inspiration these young folks provide. Keeps me going during the never-ending onslaught of horrors. What a gift it is to help students find their voices and power.

picture of the Michigan State University College of Law building

I'm very happy to share that I will be hosting the *Second* Annual Democracy and Public Law Works-in-Progress Conference at the Michigan State University College of Law on April 3–4, 2026! Law scholars (current and aspiring), I'd love to host you!

Application:
msu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

I am really not a fan of the "They're using tools of the state to target the WRONG people" argument.

We are hiring at Stetson! : )

make it stop

I just typed "facks" instead of "facts" on a student paper, so I'm absolutely qualified to teach first-year writing.

Seriously. No author likes those "[Journal] has made a decision concerning your manuscript" emails. But what we hate more is when you reject our pieces (or, what is the same thing, fill up your volume without making a formal decision on our pieces) without even telling us.

a little flashlight would be fantastic. I always love a power bank.