A smart and persuasive account of a disturbing phenomenon.

Democrats worry about making a martyr of Trump. But martyrdom is inevitable unless he gets everything he wants. If Trump stood in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shot someone, and he was criminally prosecuted for it, that would make him a martyr.

There’s Nothing Undemocratic About Barring Trump From the Ballot There are plenty of grounds for worry about these decisions, but democracy can’t be one of them. newrepublic.com/article/177820…

A case now heading to the court offers a genuinely sympathetic conservative Christian objector to an antidiscrimination law, whose probable victory will make the law even more dangerously incoherent. thehill.com/opinion/judici…

Every once in a while I put a free copy of one of my old articles on the Social Science Research Network, where anyone can read it. I've just done this with a review of Bill Eskridge's good book, Gaylaw, in the Harvard Law Review: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf….

Prejudice against conservative Christians is a real thing. But so is the tendency to see prejudice where it isn’t. That is Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s special talent. thehill.com/opinion/judici…

This Thursday, I will be participating in a Federalist Society webinar on "303 Creative, Masterpiece Cakeshop, and the Fate of Free Exercise for Wedding Vendors." Here is the link: fedsoc.org/events/303-cre…

The Supreme Court’s Gay Rights-Religious Liberty Contortions papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

How the Supreme Court uses ‘tradition’ to take away the rights of Americans thehill.com/opinion/judici…

Northwestern University's John Evans Study Committee, of which I'm a member, has unanimously called for removing Evans's name from the alumni center. dailynorthwestern.com/2024/04/11/opi…

On abortion, the Supreme Court shows it doesn’t care about democracy after all. thehill.com/opinion/judici…

A smart review of Burning Down the House, by Prof. Ajay Mehrotra, in the Journal of Law and Political Economy: escholarship.org/uc/item/2xf4s7…

My take (and some previously unreported details) on the recent controversy at the Columbia Law Review: chronicle.com/article/a-clim…

My reflections on Justice Alito’s recent remark that in today’s climate of political polarization, “one side or the other is going to win." thehill.com/opinion/judici…

The Ugly Rhetoric of Dobbs, or, Why Jack Balkin is History papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

Many people who make constitututional arguments literally don't know what they are doing. lareviewofbooks.org/article/whats-…

Most leading Republican officeholders know that their presidential candidate is unfit for the job, but they won’t say so because they fear Trump’s retribution. Yet now, weirdly, Democrats are reproducing the same pathology within their own ranks. thehill.com/opinion/campai…

My article, The Fluidity of Political Legitimacy: On Michelman’s Constitutional Essentials, is now published at Philosophy & Social Criticism, doi.org/10.1177/019145…. You can find a non-paywalled version at papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf….

Pro-life voters, who want more than anything else to minimize the number of abortions, should vote for Kamala Harris. A Trump presidency, particularly if he gets a Republican Congress, would probably mean more abortions. thehill.com/opinion/campai…

In a remarkable legal innovation, the Supreme Court has transformed Fox News into a quasi-government entity with the power to amend federal law. thehill.com/opinion/judici…