Welcome!
I came to this work through a simple question that turned out to be the hardest one in American law: Who counts as an American, and what do we owe each other once we’ve decided?
Most of our biggest fights, over religion and speech, over equal protection and bodily autonomy, over who gets to teach what to whose kids, are really arguments about belonging dressed up as legal technicalities. The rules matter. They’re where the real decisions get made, quietly, in language designed to keep most people out of the conversation.
That’s why I called this The 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. I don’t think you should have to be a lawyer to see how the building actually stands up.
What a subscription gets you:
Balanced, nuanced take on hot button human rights issues from a First Amendment expert and law professor.
Clarity to hold your own when talk turns to free speech, religion, equality, or the Supreme Court.
Weekly relief when you feel like the country is falling apart.
No jargon. No panic. No ideological cheerleading.
This is for people who want to understand the law without being talked down to or whipped up.
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 two books. When Islam Is Not a Religion examines how legal and political actors have sought to place Islam outside the protections of the First Amendment. The Politics of Vulnerability asks why people who prize their own freedom so often want to deny it to others. The questions at the heart of both, about who belongs and what we owe each other, continue to shape my work here.
