Matthew Lawrence

Drug Scheduling as Institutional Design - Harvard Law Review The United States makes bad choices when it comes to psychoactive drugs. Under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), U.S. drug law has simultaneously fueled mass incarceration, inhibited needed access,...

Hot off the presses, Dave Pozen’s and my new piece in @HarvLRev on what is broken in how we regulate marijuana, kratom, opioids, and other drugs—and how to fix it. Admin law meets public health meets LPE meets drug law meets harm reduction. Check it out!
harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...

How to Tax the Ultrarich Learn about the Fair Share Tax (FAST), a practical, constitutionally sound plan to tax the ultrarich, close loopholes, and prevent dynastic wealth accumulation.

Readers, today is the exciting launch day for my book!

How to Tax the Ultrarich
bit.ly/4rk6wBM

In partnership with the great economic policy team @rooseveltinstitute.org

A few threads will follow. 1st, the key takeaway: even w/ *this* Supreme Court, we can tax wealth at the federal level.

1/12

Congrats!

At this moment, the incessant & chaotic attacks on freedom can make collective action feel daunting, even impossible. While collective & sustained action is never fail-proof, it has disrupted the admin's violent takeover. A thread on how coordinated, systemic resistance blunts Trump's tyranny: 1/

Wow, thanks Josh for the shout out!

Is the GAO the Next Battlefield in the Fight for Separation of Powers? The expiration of the comptroller general’s term is an opportunity for Congress to reassert itself, or retreat further.

I have a piece in lawfare today about a wonky but important issue—the selection of a new Comptroller General and future of both “Congress’s Watchdog” and the (badly needed) stabilizing force in federal spending it provides. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/is-t...

This is such an awesome picture.

Happy "just circling back on this" day to those who celebrate.

I’m honored to join the @oneillinstitute.bsky.social's Center for Addiction and Public Policy, Taleed El-Sabawi, Regina LaBelle, and other colleagues for the "Winter Institute on Addiction Policy and the Law” CLE event on February 9-10, 2026.

Register (zoom or live): web.cvent.com/event/e921a3...

Awesome, thanks...really good to know the impact!

Emory Law launches Public Interest Pathways course | Emory University School of Law | Atlanta, GA

Excited to be launching and co-teaching this new course at Emory Law. If you've got ideas for articles/books/strategies/challenges to share with students to help them use law to change the world for the better, despite all that stands in the way, please do share!

law.emory.edu/news-and-eve...

Very wonky podcast with Eugene Volokh @hooverinstitution.bsky.social, Jane Bambauer, and me talking about how the first amendment does/doesn't limit states' ability to try to protect kids and adults from addictive design by tech companies. reason.com/volokh/2025/...

Totally true with the nit that it's the AG who has to sign off not the DEA, and the EO directs the AG to do so not the DEA administrator. Maybe that differences doesn't matter, but it was notable in the Biden admin that the process was started by the AG not DEA.

Trump marijuana EO is a big deal and, like all EOs, raises questions about "what's next" and "what has actually changed"? Here are some quick bullets about my understanding of where we are and where we are going.

scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scho...

Now on SSRN: "Platform Polarization?" is forthcoming in Emory Law Journal--about the increasing politicization of social media platforms and what it means for political parties and constitutional law. tinyurl.com/h4ynwyua

Comments are very welcome on the draft!

Now on SSRN: "The Missing Constitutional Law of Executive Conditions" (with Nicole Huberfeld) is forthcoming in Wash U. L. Rev--about the distinctive constitutional issues presented by presidential "regulation by deal." tinyurl.com/mrytp74z

Comments very welcome on the draft!

Thanks for doing this

Well over 150 UC law faculty have just made public this open letter to the UC Regents arguing, point by specific point, for why the Regents should not accept any of the major demands the Trump administration has made of UCLA.

We argue it's not a genuine settlement offer, but a form of extortion.

This is interesting!

Now that Character.AI is 18+ the pressure on other companies to age gate will grow.

Delighted to share my piece with Brett Frischmann and Avi Sholkoff, "Tort Liability for Failure to Age Gate: A Promising Regulatory Response to Digital Public Health Hazards," www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Is the Trump admin going to appeal the RI court's order requiring SNAP distributions? DOJ's latest filing suggests they are considering it, asking for a written order to help them decide.

Meanwhile the MA court says funds *are legally available* and asks admin to say if they will pay by 11/3.

Two very different memos: Here is (1) the first Trump Admin's explanation that they'd made funds available to protect SNAP beneficiaries from shutdown-related disruptions, dated January 9, 2019, and (2) the second Trump Admin's explanation that they would not do so, posted by Axios last Friday.

Can the power of the purse be protected? Professors @mblawrence.bsky.social, Eloise Pasachoff, & Zachary Price analyze the Trump Admin's dramatic shift away from Congressional power and toward unilateral executive control over spending. bit.ly/appropriatio...

Awesome presentation at Emory by Yale Law’s Nicholas Parrillo to discuss “Administrative Law as a Choice of Business Strategy.” If you’re in admin law (health care, energy, envt, consumer protection, etc.) you really ought to read this groundbreaking paper. tinyurl.com/3ejdm5a8

No, the President Cannot Enforce the Law-Firm Deals The authors argue that President Trump's agreements with law firms are legally unenforceable. And the consequences that follow.

I ask because this was raised around the law firm deals (and I’m working on a paper exploring executive conditions in general). Q’s about whether ultra vires contracts are enforceable have also come up, www.justsecurity.org/110996/presi...

Aware of anyone clarifying for universities whether they could be liable under state fraud/bribery/kickback law for signing this and getting induced grants to the extent that the promised benefits might be ultra vires and so outside supremacy clause preemption under In re Neagle?

“If the President could later alter the bargain by negating provisions they disfavored, why would senators or representatives ever vote for a package including provisions they dislike?”

-Me, Pasachoff & Price last spring on how appropriations presidentialism causes shutdowns. tinyurl.com/59uwsu42

DISAPPROPRIATION - Columbia Law Review Introduction “Here an appropriation is less a grant of money than an act of duty, to which the Constitution, that is, the will of the nation, obliges us.” “We need to handle our financial situation.” ...

For my part, I focus on the separation of powers side of shutdowns in my Columbia Law Review paper, Disappropriation. tinyurl.com/mr45twe5

And I talk about who pays for shutdowns in my @yalelawjournal.bsky.social paper, Subordination and Separation of Powers. tinyurl.com/bp8j3tnk

Congress's Constitution A leading scholar of Congress and the Constitution analyzes Congress’s surprisingly potent set of tools in the system of checks and balances. Congress is w...

For anyone trying to understand how government shutdowns work, I will post a couple pieces I've done on them in the reply. But first I'd read @joshchafetz.bsky.social on "Congress's Constitution." yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...