Welcome!

Why “Architecture of Rights”? Rights are structures, not slogans. They have load-bearing parts and ornamental ones, and the shifts that matter usually happen out of sight. This publication shows you how the structures actually work.

Read along and the news will stop blurring together. You’ll come away with a steadier sense of where America is headed, with less fear and more clarity.

This is for people who want to understand the law without being talked down to or whipped up.

What you get

• Understand what the law actually says, in plain language you can use.

• Catch the shifts the news cycle misses, so you’re not dependent on headlines to know what’s changing.

• Hold your own at the dinner table, so you’re the one explaining the case, not nodding along.

About me

I’m a law professor and former First Amendment litigator. I teach Constitutional Law, the First Amendment, and International Human Rights Law, and I serve as a fellow at two Washington, D.C.-based think tanks, the Aspen Institute and Freedom Forum.

I’m also the author of When Islam Is Not a Religion, which examines how legal and political actors have sought to place Islam outside the protections of the First Amendment. The questions at the heart of that book—about rights and belonging—continue to shape my work here.