To honor and highlight the anti-racist uprisings this summer, we're posting classic pieces of Critical Race Theory from our archive. First up, Cheryl Harris's seminal "Whiteness as Property," first published in June 1993.
The Harvard Law Review is proud to announce that we are sponsoring an original reality TV series, "Love is Binding," where single law professors read anonymized versions of each others' legal scholarship and, without ever meeting face to face, decide if they want to get engaged.
Free and fair presidential elections are a cornerstone of American democracy, but are they required by the Constitution? This Note says no, arguing for state discretion to regulate how, and whether, presidential elections occur.
Tweets aren’t law, even when issued by
@realDonaldTrump
. Here’s the first scholarly account of why tweets lack the legal status of formal presidential directives.
Crime really does pay . . . for law enforcement. How civil asset forfeiture lets
governments forfeit constitutional rights (and private property) at a profit by bypassing the criminal justice system and flouting state laws.
HLR is proud to have published some of the most important and foundational pieces of Critical Race Theory scholarship. Today we're republishing "Race, Reform, and Retrenchment: Transformation and Legitimation in Antidiscrimination Law" by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw.
@sandylocks
.
Recently, we announced our plan to republish several seminal pieces that shaped the way we understand race and law. Today, we continue that effort by republishing "Brown v. Board of Education and the Interest-Convergence Dilemma" by Prof. Derrick Bell.
Was a Turkish court legally correct last summer when it said that the Hagia Sophia had to become a mosque again?
Probably yes, and even those who opposed the move should acknowledge that:
The Constitution was signed September 17, 1787. Two hundred years later, Justice Thurgood Marshall reflected in the
@HarvLRev
on seeking "a sensitive understanding of the Constitution's inherent defects, and its promising evolution through 200 years of history"
#ConstitutionDay
In, “The Solicitor General and the Shadow Docket,”
@steve_vladeck
explores the increasing use of seeking emergency or extraordinary relief from the Supreme Court by the Solicitor General under the Trump Administration. Read it here:
In this year’s Foreword
@DorothyERoberts
focuses “on the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex, conceived of as rooted in chattel slavery in the United States, as a starting point to examine the potential for a new abolition constitutionalism.”
Good morning! Today we released the first issue of Vol. 134, aka our Supreme Court Issue. Please check out all of its content on our website, including Prof. Michael Klarman's Foreword, "The Degradation of American Democracy — And the Court."
Originalism is hard to do. It isn't a simple formula for churning out easy legal answers. But, argues
@stephenesachs
, it’s something just as important: a standard for which legal answers are the right ones. ➡️
On August 5th, 2019, India revoked the special autonomous status of Jammu & Kashmir. While the move may have been the tipping point for India’s settler colonial project in Kashmir, it was in no way the start.
New Blog series by Professors Tom Ginsburg (
@UChicagoLaw
) and Mila Versteeg (
@UVALaw
) comparing various countries' COVID-19 responses under their constitutions.
Two years ago, we taught a seminar on constitutional rights in an Indiana prison. Our students helped us appreciate that prison law is broken & built on dangerous myths. Or so we argue in this new piece on The Incoherence of Prison Law.
@nyulaw
@YaleLawSch
On the Forum, Olivia Warren writes about the sexual harassment she experienced while clerking for the late Judge Stephen Reinhardt — and what has happened since she testified about it at a House judiciary subcommittee hearing in 2020.
Should federal courts be more willing to intervene in state criminal proceedings when litigants raise structural and systemic constitutional challenges? Professor Fred O. Smith, Jr. says yes:
On this date in 1955,
@AlbertEinstein
passed away. To honor the day we're glancing back at Prof.
@tribelaw
's article "The Curvature of Constitutional Space," 103 Harv. L. Rev. 1 (1989). Check out the research credit to a then-unknown future
@HarvLRev
President.
cc:
@BarackObama
Caste oppression is deeply rooted & ingrained—as recent claims reveal, caste discrimination now threatens to entrench itself in U.S. workplaces.
@GGKrishnamoomoo
& Charanya Krishnaswami argue that civil rights laws must be read to protect workers from it.
Are these extraconstitutional times? In our latest Blog post
@ProfLWiley
and
@steve_vladeck
lay the groundwork for their forthcoming Forum Essay on why COVID-19 reinforces the argument for “regular” judicial review.
There is growing concern about the fate of reproductive rights. However, as
@ProfMMurray
explains, a looming threat to Roe v. Wade and reproductive rights may come from an unexpected source: the interest in racial justice.
“For those who think that...state constitutions and...the initiative process can be used to rein in excessive gerrymanders, the Court could well do a whole lot more damage.”
@rickhasen
: “The Next Threat to Redistricting Reform” on
#HLRBlog
#Election2018
A lesson in how to cite yourself in a Supreme Court opinion, from Justice Kagan in the CFPB case:
See, well, Kagan, Presidential Administration, 114 Harv. L. Rev. 2245, 2331–2346
IT'S ISSUE DAY! 📅 The April issue features the annual "Developments in the Law," an in-depth treatment of an important area of the law prepared by third-year editors of the Review.
On this date in 1954,
#BrownvBoard
was decided. "The outstanding feature of the decision lies in the triumph of a principle...so fundamental, so insistent, that it could be neither denied nor compromised."-Albert M. Sacks, later Dean
@Harvard_Law
, in Volume 68 (1954)
#HLRArchives
"This Foreword examines the recent degradation of American democracy, seeks explanations for it, and canvasses the Supreme Court’s contribution to it." - Michael J. Klarman coming in 🔥 off the presses
The Harvard Law Review remembers Judith Heumann, "a visionary and tireless activist" who "committed her life to advancing the rights of people with disabilities in the United States and abroad." Read Professor Robyn M. Powell's tribute ➡️
Stare decisis enables people to rely on judicial decisions to form expectations about their legal rights and their lives. This Article examines Dobbs in light of the Court's previous precedent on precedent.
@NinaVarsava
's Precedent, Reliance, and Dobbs ➡️
To highlight the anti-racist uprisings, we recently re-published Professor Cheryl Harris's celebrated Article, "Whiteness as Property." As another part of that effort, we asked Professor Harris to write a reflection on the piece. Here is her Response:
"But were any laws violated? As hard as I try, I can’t seem to find any."-Steve Mirmina of
@GeorgetownLaw
&
@NASA
on
@elonmusk
&
@SpaceX
's launch at
#HLRBlog
: "Elon Musk’s ‘Starman’: Is it Really Legal for Billionaires to Launch Their Roadsters into Space?"
New Essay just posted on on the HLR Forum: "Coronavirus, Civil Liberties, and the Courts: The Case Against 'Suspending' Judicial Review" by
@ProfLWiley
and
@steve_vladeck
The Roberts Court has expanded rights and narrowed liabilities for corporations. Yet the Court's "pro-business" jurisprudence may not serve the interests of many shareholders and stakeholders, argues
@elizpollman
(
@PennLaw
). ➡️
At a time when cities and states continue to struggle with how to address policing,
@jiseonsong
argues that we must pay attention to police in the ER, a place where people, especially racial minority and poor patients, are particularly vulnerable. ➡️
Our April issue is here, featuring "Apparent Fault" by Professors Aziz Huq and Genevieve Lakier, "The New Governors: The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech" by
@Klonick
, and
@ksabeelrahman
's review of Constitutional Coup by
@JonDMichaels
.
In "Envisioning Abolition Democracy" Professor Allegra M. McLeod describes abolitionist efforts to sustain justice without dependance on police and prisons arguing that "abolitionist justice offers a more compelling and material effort to realize justice."
The Harvard Law Review is excited to host a symposium highlighting the authors of our forthcoming Prison Abolition Issue and the scholars and activists engaged in the movement.
In "Decryption Originalism," Prof.
@OrinKerr
examines the 1807 treason trial of Aaron Burr and applies its lessons to the modern problem of compelled decryption of digital devices.
"While these [COVID-9] measures are widely supported by the publics in many countries, some scholars and activists . . . worry that many leaders might not easily give up their newfound powers, and that civil liberty restrictions will become the new normal."
New Blog series by Professors Tom Ginsburg (
@UChicagoLaw
) and Mila Versteeg (
@UVALaw
) comparing various countries' COVID-19 responses under their constitutions.
Private data markets make the headlines, but our governments, too, gather and trade terabytes of our most intimate data.
@BridgetFahey
analyzes intergovernmental data markets and the unorthodox administrative institutions that have arisen to govern them.
In "The Morality of Administrative Law,"
@CassSunstein
and
@avermeule
employ a Fullerian lens to identify and critique an "internal morality" of administrative law.
Structural Supreme Court reform seems unlikely given present partisan divisions. But as
@danepps
and
@ganeshsitaraman
argue, there are many smaller-scale reforms of the Supreme Court that may still be possible right now and that deserve consideration.
Our annual Supreme Court issue is out today. Look here for a tribute to Justice Kennedy and more commentary on OT 2017 cases than can be previewed in one tweet.
@jamalgreene
has this year's Foreword, "Rights as Trumps?" Dig in:
The federal gov't no longer policing for-profit schools is bad news for civil rights, argue 5 scholars from
@Harvard_Law
&
@LawyersComm
, on
#HLRBlog
"For-Profit Schools’ Predatory Practices and Students of Color: A Mission to Enroll Rather than Educate"
Is the Palestinian BDS movement anti-Semitic or anti-Israeli as a matter of legal discrimination? Short answer: no. How U.S. anti-discrimination law is being weaponized to stifle the movement for Palestinian rights:
Read
@linamkhan
and Professor David E. Pozen's article pushing back on “information fiduciaries,” a concept "meant to rebalance the relationship between ordinary individuals and the digital companies" using "their personal data for profit" here:
"When a majority of the Supreme Court cannot agree on a rule of decision, can the Court nonetheless create a precedent?"
@RichardMRe
explores this complicated issue in his article for our May Issue:
We ask the Twitter Court to affirm that our account is
@verified
. The blue check is consistent with the supreme law of our land. See
#Bluebook
. We rest our case.
On the Forum now: Prof. Goldberg's and Prof. Zipursky's RESPONSE to Prof. Sharkey's REVIEW of G&Z's own book, Recognizing Wrongs . . . a Response²❓ We'll workshop it.
In a SCOTUS stats first, this year’s Supreme Court Statistics include *four* new tables that seek to quantify the Court’s behavior on its emergency docket. And thanks to
@2n_Design
, these tables are now included in our interactive data visualizations! ➡️
Read
@RachelBarkow
's piece for our Supreme Court issue, "Categorical Mistakes: The Flawed Framework of the Armed Career Criminal Act and Mandatory Minimum Sentencing," here:
Is the U.S. constitutional order a friend or foe to progressivism? Prof. Jonathan Gould’s new review tackles this question by examining constitutionalism as an ideology, constitutional argument, and constitutional structure.➡️