Noah Chauvin

Check out @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor Tracy Pearl's (@tpearl.bsky.social) appearance on WKMS news, Kentucky’s NPR affiliate, discussing e-warrant technologies!

www.wkms.org/criminal-jus...

Boomer!

Big things happening in Norman!

@uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor Tracy Pearl @tpearl.bsky.social served as a panelist on SovereignCast Live, convened by the OU Native Nations Center for Tribal Policy Research, sharing her perspective on AI and tribal policy making.

Check it out: www.ou.edu/nativenation...

On Thursday, @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor @staceytovino.bsky.social gave a one-hour presentation titled "HIPAA Review and Updates for Prosecutors" on behalf of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys.

Last week, @uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor Jon Lee @jonleelawprof.bsky.social presented at a faculty workshop at North Carolina Central University School of Law, sharing his expertise on best practices for developing assessments.

@uofoklahomalaw.bsky.social Professor Noah Chauvin @noahchauvin.bsky.social spoke at a Rutgers Law School symposium, where he presented his work on the constitutional issues raised by state government efforts to regulate ICE and other federal law enforcement agencies.

The DOJ's complaint is available here:

www.justice.gov/opa/media/14...

California law targets ICE agents’ use of masks. Is the practice constitutional? | Opinion “Wearing masks is not necessary for ICE to perform its functions,” writes UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.

For the view that California's law is constitutional, see this from Erwin Chemerinsky:

www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-e...

I expect the federal government to prevail--but this is a hotly contested issue. On my view, see:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Trump administration sues California over law banning masked federal agents The Trump administration has filed a lawsuit over California’s new laws banning federal agents from wearing masks and requiring them to have identification while conducting operations in the state.

In ICE masking news: The federal government has sued California to prevent enforcement of the state's "No Secret Police Act," which bans federal law and immigration enforcement officials from wearing masks on duty in most circumstances.

apnews.com/article/fede...

I’m being a little glib about it, but I can understand why guidance about the circumstances in which one should seek counsel might be privileged. But it shouldn’t be classified.

I'm teaching about classification and the Espionage Act tomorrow, so I'm thinking about the time the FBI decided it could seriously damage national security if people found out the Bureau advised their employees to ask for legal help when needed.

This and more here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

For no particular reason, a thread of books on presidential power that I recommend. 🧵📚

I'm curious if any labor/employment law folks have thoughts on this. It strikes me that you can't dress up harassing a company executive outside his office as "union activity" to avoid sanctions for it, but is my instinct wrong here?

The idea that the US should look to a repressive, revanchist dictatorship for moral leadership on anything is absurd. It’s especially absurd in this context: almost half of the world’s polysilicon comes from Xinjiang.

For more on why I think California's law (and similar bills that have been proposed in other jurisdictions) raise Supremacy Clause issues, see my forthcoming Southern California Law Review Postscript essay: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

ICE unmasked: California officials clash over enforcement of looming law Some legal experts say the no-mask mandate will likely be struck down — and one top prosecutor is already advising federal agents to ignore the new law set to take effect next year.

I spoke with @ariquelmy.bsky.social (@courthousenews.bsky.social) about why California's new law that will ban ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers from wearing masks on duty likely violates the Supremacy Clause. Check out his article below!

www.courthousenews.com/ice-unmasked...

The Battle in Virginia Over an Activist Who Protested Stephen Miller

Gov. Youngkin, Jason Miyares and former Comm. Att’y Theo Stamos have been working with the Feds to suppress political dissent & free speech in Arlington, including through a criminal investigation of my client, as this article from The NY Times explains.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/03/u...

1/2

I’d be a lot more sympathetic to this view if a bunch of Mamdani supporters hadn’t spent months insisting that the national Democratic establishment endorse him.

Sanctioned Scholars: The Price of Speaking Freely in Today’s Academy This report presents the results of a survey of 209 scholars in this “Scholars Under Fire” database who were targeted for sanction because of their speech between 2020 and 2024.

"1 in 4 reported that they feel they can’t express their opinion ... because of how others would respond."

On the heels of Gov. Abbott saying Texas is "targeting [leftist] professors," @thefireorg.bsky.social has a new report out detailing the effects on academics.

Sadly, the companies that make the variety packs don’t share my views on this issue.

I don’t want to be reasonable about it, I want to post!

(This is why I generally don’t have candy in my office—not a lot of candy I don’t like!)

Empty wrappers for airheads and twizzlers

We power through

A tragedy in three acts:

"Nobody's taking candy from the bowl in my office, so I'm just eating it."

"I'll bring the bowl to class so my students will take some."

"My students took all the good candy and I don't want to eat what's left."

Americans Praise Higher Ed Research, But Remain Concerned about Campus Culture Polls show concerns about viewpoint diversity, critical thinking, bias, and free speech.

A majority of Americans (including 65% of Democrats) say that higher education is headed in the wrong direction, per Pew/HxA:

heterodoxacademy.substack.com/p/americans-...

186. When Can States Prosecute Federal Officers? Stephen Miller claims that ICE officers have "immunity" for anything they do while enforcing immigration law. Even as an argument about *state* criminal prosecutions, that claim is overstated at best.

Today's "One First" explains why Stephen Miller is wrong that ICE officers have "federal immunity" from prosecution for all actions they take in their official duties, and that anyone attempting to prosecute them is committing a felony.

Supremacy Clause immunity is a thing, but it's *not* absolute:

Indiana University banned its student newspaper from printing just days before homecoming weekend — after firing the paper’s advisor when he refused to censor critical coverage. That would be bad enough on its own, but FIRE is taking this one personally, as the Indiana Daily Student reported this hostile campaign was due in part to its coverage of FIRE’s ranking Indiana University as the worst public university for free speech. You read that right. The school’s response to the news that they are bad at free speech … is to censor the news. It’s ironic — and not just in the Alanis Morissette sense — that these actions will likely push its overall ranking even lower next year. At least we can’t fault them for consistency.

Why did Indiana University attack and cut its own student newspaper?

Well, in a twist of irony any English professor would call clichéd, it turns out IU did it because they were angry about the students' reporting on a FIRE report naming IU as the worst public university for free speech in the US.

Thanks! No free or low-cost national security law textbooks yet, I don't think... I'm working on it!

Was really excited for my first attempt at editing a case for my students, because one of my goals is to eventually provide students with my own materials so they don't have to buy textbooks.

Realizing now my first attempt probably shouldn't have been the Fifth Circuit's 60,000-word AEA case.