Andrew Kent

We had only very bad choices on the ballot. I held my nose and voted Cuomo, fwiw

A monomaniacal view that Israel is uniquely evil - a view that many of his statements and actions over many years seems to suggest he holds - is, I think, suggestive of anti-Semitism. I read his statement and his attempted explanation in that context. But I admit I can't be sure.

Now that your guy won, can Mamdani people admit that "when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it's been laced by the IDF" sounds a lot like something an anti-Semite would say?

Andrew Kent and I have a blog post on Quorum Call, the blog of the Harvard Law School Journal of Legislation, about the tariffs case being argued tomorrow. You can find it here: journals.law.harvard.edu/jol/2025/11/...

An Amici Brief in the Tariffs Case Andrew Kent and I filed a brief last week in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump

A substack post about the brief Andrew Kent and I submitted in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump, the tariffs case:
paulstephan.substack.com/p/an-amici-b...

New amicus brief in IEEPA tariff case by law profs @andrewkent.bsky.social @pbs3.bsky.social: "Interpreting IEEPA as not covering tariffs or other monetary exactions does not hobble the President. Existing trade law gives him significant authority to adjust tariffs to confront a national emergency."

Legal Theory Bookworm: "Contemporary Non-Positivism" by Atiq, buff.ly/tW60iUQ - The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Contemporary Non-Positivism by Emad H. Atiq.

Craig Green is very worth reading on Erie papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

There's some excellent scholarship on these questions. Eg Caleb Nelson scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcont...

In light of the 5th Circuit's important Alien Enemies Act decision, here again is a link to my deep-dive draft paper on what the statute meant in 1798. Updated version coming to SSRN soon. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

What I'm saying is that Niskanen should bring on some fellows to do esoteric readings of Plato

How Law Students Are Navigating Early Recruitment | Law.com “In some ways, that’s very powerful, to kind of have your career plan that's buttoned up,” but “the flip side of that, of course, is your career plans are buttoned up for a couple years,” said Carey B...

The criticisms here of the effects on law students are right, but miss the most important piece: hiring on first semester grades hurts first-gen students, students who don't have lawyers in the family, students who take a little longer to adjust to law school, etc. 1/
www.law.com/2025/08/18/h...

Thank you!

Excellent scholarly analysis by @andrewkent.bsky.social of Trump's invocation of Alien Enemies Act.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Zohran Mamdani’s Fantasy Island The mayoral candidate’s support comes from a young, mostly white, often childless, likely temporary population insulated from the consequences of the urban decline they’re about to cause

www.tabletmag.com/sections/new...

Volume 48, Issue 5 — Fordham International Law Journal

As we watch the increasing weaponization of economic tools, this new collection of (often prescient) articles on "Economic Sanctions and the Law" in the Fordham International Law Journal has become only more relevant: www.fordhamilj.org/volume-48-is...

Even if justices are geniuses, a democratic culture, committed to the people's self-govt largely through elective institutions, should work hard treat them like ordinary people with a job (though an important one). The fan cults around eg Scalia and RBG were embarrassing and unfortunate

This isn’t aimed only at Sotomayor. But to expand on Robert’s point, with the exception of Holmes and Posner, none of these people are geniuses. They’re generally good lawyers who had the benefit of circumstance. Treating them like wizards—as we do at these public talks—is a recipe for disaster.

The ASLH Publications Committee invites applications for the position. Applicants should be members of the American Society for Legal History who are accomplished legal historians, have the intellectual range to work with manuscripts from different historical periods and geographic regions, are conversant with both law and history, and welcome the opportunity to identify and promote the best scholarship in the field. They should be prepared to request release time and other departmental or institutional support.

Big news! After 8 years of exemplary service, @gauthamrao.bsky.social is stepping down as editor of @lawandhistrev.bsky.social. The ASLH seeks applications for the next editor. Great opportunity, though Gautham's shoes will be hard to fill.
Details here:
legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/2025/08/law-...

In the last few years, the Supreme Court has embraced a formalist approach to separation of powers law, allegedly justified by the Constitution's "original meaning." It is revolutionary, rapidly remaking the constitutional law of administration. But the Court's engagement with history is selective and idiosyncratic. In particular, it has largely ignored what we know of governmental practice in the early republic. This Essay attacks the Court's use of history. It uses Jack Balkin's analysis of legal discourse in Memory and Authority to unpack the Court's reliance on historical arguments and to suggest avenues for critique. It draws on recent scholarship on Founding Era practice to show that eighteenth-century understandings of separation of powers were not formalist. And it argues for the restoration of Montesquieu to our constitutional memory. A key figure in the development of the Constitution, Montesquieu's understanding of separation of powers closely tracked early republic practice. He thus points the way towards an alternative interpretation of our constitutional tradition and a more pragmatic and historically accurate structural constitutionalism in place of the Court's growing formalist fetish.

Delighted to share my latest, History and Fetishism in the New Separation of Powers Formalism, now live in the Penn Law Review!

The piece traces the emergence of the Supreme Court’s new approach to separation of powers law and argues that it is grounded in a set of basic mistakes. (1/3)

My draft article goes into depth on the key statutory term "alien enemies." It had a widely understood legal meaning in 1798. Tren de Aragua members do not fit that meaning, even though the group is a designated "Foreign Terrorist Organization."

On "invasion" and "predatory incursion": in 1798, those terms in the Alien Enemies Act clearly had a war-military meaning--an attack on US territory. The Trump administration's interpretation is incorrect. I may have used a sledgehammer to kill a gnat, but it seemed important . . . .

I've just posted "The Alien Enemies Act of 1798," a draft article doing a deep dive into all aspects of the statute and background law -- what it all meant in 1798. It defines "invasion" and "predatory incursion," among other provisions. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

there's a nice (derogatory) confluence between the second trump administration's embrace of Redemption politics and its effort to engage in a Redemption-style rewriting of Jan 6 and associated recent history

On Feb 27, 1813 a statute of Congress came into effect authorizing the President to "appoint an agent to preserve vaccine matter, and to furnish the same to any citizen of the US" who wants it via US mails. Over 200 years ago we had a pro-vax Congress. In 2025, US Senate confirmed RFK Jr

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts

This is so awful. Life saving technology attacked by an addled loon, utterly unfit for his job

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts www.nytimes.com/2025/08/05/h...

Finally a car that can make any hard right turn.

At my kids' K-12 school, wokeness definitely coming from teachers and admin staff, not all of them, for sure. But those groups seem stronger generators of it than students, I think

In my experience, it definitely comes from some, maybe even many, teachers (law professors, in my corner of the world), but certainly also from students and admin staff

strongly strongly strongly recommend