The University of Chicago Legal Forum

The University of Chicago Legal Forum is excited to announce the topic for its 2026 Volume and Symposium:

Authority, Oversight, and Accountability

We are thrilled to share The University of Chicago Legal Forum’s 2025-2026 Editorial Board. Congratulations!

Happy to have been able to contribute to this @uchilegalforum.bsky.social symposium!

My piece on "War Powers and the Return of Major Power Conflict" is available here: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Read "How Civil Aiding and Abetting Liability for Terrorist Activities Applies to Social Media Companies—And How it Does Not" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Nathaniel Parr argues that, after Twitter v. Taamneh, it is nearly impossible to impose liability upon social media companies for aiding terrorism. As such, alternative solutions are needed to encourage social media sites to heighten their detection of terrorist activity.

Read "TakeTok: Does a TikTok Ban Violate the Takings Clause?" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Kevin Marien argues that the law used to ban TikTok and other foreign apps does not violate the Constitution’s Takings Clause, even if it results in a total diminution of value, because of the Supreme Court’s contraband and national security exceptions to the Takings Clause.

Read "Seeking the Divine: A Proposed Methodology of Religion to Resolve Adjudications Over the Nexus Inquiry in Religious Asylum Claims" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Saloni S. Jaiswal addresses a circuit split on the necessary causal connection to persecution for asylum claims. She proposes a four-part definitional methodology of religion and argues that a but-for causation standard is sufficient for religious asylum claims.

Read "Scrutinizing National Security: A Call for Clear and Convincing Evidence in § 1226(a) Prolonged Detention Cases" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Rosie Gruen argues that, when applying Mathews v. Eldridge to detentions of noncitizens, the government should be required to prove by clear and convincing evidence the existence of a national security interest and a direct connection between the interest and the detention.

Read "Adjusting Immunity for Unconstitutional Torts" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Liam Grah argues that the discretionary function exception to the FTCA should apply to unconstitutional tortious conduct only when the challenged acts violate clearly established constitutional rights that a reasonable officer would have known.

Read "Water Security in the Wake of Arizona v. Navajo Nation: How the President’s Emergency Powers Can Provide a Path Forward for the Navajo Nation" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Arizona v. Navajo Nation held that the United States has no obligation to ensure the water security of the Navajo Nation. In response, Kelly Bridges identifies the Stafford Act as the best prospect for the Navajo to advance their water rights.

Read "'Sportswashing' as a National Security Concern: The Role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS)" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

"Sportswashing" is an increasingly popular, and murky, label used to criticize unpopular investments in the sports world. Luke Bianco examines the practice from a legal perspective, articulating a framework to analyze the practice’s potential national security implications.

Read "Extraction, Retention, and Use: Applying Use-Restrictions to Fourth Amendment Forensic Electronic Device Search Doctrine at the Border" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

Daniel Vicente Alayo-Matos resolves a circuit split on the level of suspicion needed for CPB to extract data from travelers at the border under the Fourth Amendment by suggesting that CPB should need different levels of suspicion for extraction, storage, and use of traveler data.

Read "Big Data as a National Security Issue" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

@pbs3.bsky.social argues that big data has developed in a legal vacuum, which presents national security threats when it is targeted or used. Instead, we should bring order to big data by treating it as an emergent system governed by property rules that apply to the system as a whole.

Read "Terrorism, Not Treason: The Rise and Fall of Criminal Charges" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

@ssinnar.bsky.social examines the absence of treason charges during the War on Terror and advances two explanations: legally, terrorism charges contain fewer legal limits than treason charges; socioculturally, terrorism charges imply a lack of belonging to a political community.

Read "Climatizing National Security" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

@marknevitt.bsky.social addresses concerns surrounding the military’s role in addressing climate change. He concludes that, while there are democratic and equitable concerns, climatizing national security presents opportunities for international collaboration and advancing American goals.

Read "Cultural Heritage and Security Policy" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

@mokersel.bsky.social and @pgerstenblith.bsky.social survey the legal changes since ISIL’s looting of cultural heritage sites in the 2010s and find that cultural heritage protection remains trapped in an inconsistent and reactive, rather than proactive, framework.

Read "A Transformational Agenda for National Security" now: legal-forum.uchicago.edu/print-archiv...

@msjamshidi.bsky.social charts a path for rethinking American national security law, centered on uprooting the assumptions that form the bedrock of American national security goals and led by emerging social movements.