Professional Updates and Recent Scholarship

Blogging has been light over the past year because I've been getting accustomed to a career as a legal academic. A little over a year ago, I began searching for visiting positions at law schools around the country, and ended up with an offer from the University of Idaho College of Law. I've just wrapped up my spring semester of teaching Criminal Procedure (Adjudications) and First Amendment Law. I taught Constitutional Law II in the fall.

I've been used to keeping my professional work and my blogging separate because, up until relatively recently, I've wanted to avoid sharing information about my clients and cases. This desire to keep my professional work and blogging separate also was a large factor in what became my main research focuses: constitutional law and criminal law. For the most part, I did not practice much, if at all, in either area--and to the extent that there was any overlap, I avoided writing on topics that had the potential to veer into what I was doing at my day job.

Now, things will likely change. In the fall, I will be beginning a tenure-track position at St. Mary's University School of Law in San Antonio, Texas. I'll be teaching criminal law, criminal procedure, and some other courses that have yet to be determined (although I have some ideas and preferences that I'll hopefully be able to put into practice in the near future). I've had a fantastic experience at Idaho. The faculty here have been excellent mentors and have given me invaluable advice on teaching and navigating the academic job market. The students have been excellent--their opinions, insights, participation, and preparation have been consistently top-notch, and my departure is bittersweet as I won't have the opportunity to teach the students who will be continuing into their third year in the fall.

Blogging has been light because I've redirected a lot of my writing time to my scholarship. I've written a lot over the past year. I've shared a bit of what I've written, but only a small part of it. As always, my SSRN page is here and is fairly up to date. I've also been blogging less because I've been trying to write more short pieces as op-eds in order to reach a wider audience. As I work toward balancing my time teaching and writing, I'll be trying to blog more in the coming months.

Finally, a summary of my recent scholarly work. I've been pursuing something of a three-track research agenda: (1) constitutional law--particularly constitutional interpretation, originalism, and related issues; (2) criminal law--particularly odd laws and how certain criminal laws fail to achieve certain normative ideals like democratic legitimacy; and (3) odd law--odd or obscure laws that I find interesting and feel compelled to explore.

Recent work in each of these areas includes:

Constitutional Law

Multiple articles on the Court's last term and its turn to history and tradition, including an argument that the Court is turning away from original public meaning originalism, and a critique of the Court's history and tradition approach--specifically as applied in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen.

An article on how debates over theories of constitutional interpretation must account for disingenuous and incompetent interpreters. I argue that certain theories may lend themselves to abuse or mistake more than others, and that one cannot simply dodge this issue by claiming that only the interpreter is to blame rather than the theory.

Some essays, including an illustration of problems with originalism in the context of interpreting the original meaning of "Twenty Dollars," an essay (coauthored with Al Hiland) on how the Court's history and tradition approach may be employed to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, and an essay comparing originalism and common good constitutionalism under a transparency rubric.

Criminal Law

An article on criminal laws that appear to remain on the books despite strong indications that they are contrary to the will of a majority of those subject to the laws. I'll be following this article up soon with an article focusing on crimes appearing in state constitutions.

Odd Law

A deep dive into Idaho's tort of seduction, including the historical origins of the tort, constitutional challenges to the tort in other jurisdictions, and how Idaho's statute-based cause of action for seduction is different from other "heart-balm" actions like alienation of affection and criminal conversation.

There will be much more to come in all of these areas, so stay tuned!