SLR Online

Lewerenz

Symposium - 2025 - Promises of Sovereignty

Federal Indian Law in a Time of Judicial Self-Aggrandizement

by  Dan Lewerenz  

Introduction The Supreme Court is accumulating power. Call it “concentrating power in the court,” a “judicial power grab,” or (as a growing number of scholars are calling it) “judicial aggrandizement” or “judicial self-aggrandizement.” Each of these ideas describes a Supreme Court that is upsetting accepted notions of the separation of powers—accumulating power for itself, often…

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

Fletcher

Symposium - 2025 - Promises of Sovereignty

Against Judicial Generalists

by  Matthew L.M. Fletcher  

There is something irritatingly wrong with Indian law practice at the Supreme Court. Oral argument at the Supreme Court is a bitterly unpleasant affair for Indigenous people and tribal advocates for a lengthy variety of reasons. It is canonical that tribal advocates must attempt to avoid Supreme Court review; the strategic thinking is that the…

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

Davis

Symposium - 2025 - Promises of Sovereignty

Can the Roberts Court Find Federal Indian Law?

by  Seth Davis  

Introduction Imagine the lost world of “lawfinding.” In that world, there was a general common law for federal judges to find. And in that world, each statute had a “single, best meaning” for judges to unearth with the traditional tools of statutory interpretation. Of course, we are not going back to that world. Too much…

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

Berger

Symposium - 2025 - Promises of Sovereignty

Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta’s Constitutional Mistakes

by  Bethany R. Berger  

Something bizarre is happening in Oklahoma. The state’s high courts, well-versed by long experience in federal Indian law, are rewriting fundamental rules of that field. Since 2022, the Oklahoma Supreme Court and Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals have rejected challenges to state jurisdiction over tribal citizens in child welfare, domestic violence, and ordinary criminal matters.…

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

SCOTUS

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

Remedies in the First Hundred Days of Trump II: A Gently Adversarial Collaboration

by  Samuel L. Bray & James E. Pfander  

In Trump’s second term, courts face mounting pressure to issue broad, sweeping remedies in response to clear executive overreach. While Samuel Bray and James Pfander often disagree about judicial authority to issue universal injunctions, they join forces in this adversarial collaboration to explore modern application of equitable traditions. Where do they agree and where precisely do their views diverge?

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

The Removal Question: A Timeline and Summary of the Legal Arguments

by  Aditya Bamzai & Peter M. Shane  

Aditya Bamzai and Peter Shane trace the enduring debate of the President’s removal power. Together they provide a comprehensive yet succinct history of this question from the First Congress to Trump’s latest removals, then offer their competing interpretations of how history and doctrine define the limits of executive power today.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

Executive Branch Attacks on January 6 Prosecutors: A Notable Case of Democratic Backsliding

by  Sonia Mittal  

Sonia Mittal–a senior January 6 prosecutor–details the firings, demotions, and investigations of DOJ prosecutors. Mittal argues these executive actions are part of a systemic attempt to “capture the referees,” a term used by political scientists to describe authoritarian consolidation, and highlights the dangers of politicizing law enforcement, especially when career officials face reprisals for impartial legal work.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

How a Rule 23(b)(2) Class Action Could Save Law Firms from Trump

by  Nora Freeman Engstrom, Jonah B. Gelbach & David Marcus  

As Trump targets law firms with punitive executive orders, firms face a familiar dilemma: all would benefit from resistance, but acting alone may risk everything. This Essay diagnoses the legal profession’s collective action problem and prescribes a united, classwide solution.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

National Security or Nothing to See? Clearances as the Site of Executive Overreach

by  Shreeya Singh  

Can courts review the President’s retaliatory decision to revoke security clearances? In this Essay, Stanford J.D. Candidate Shreeya Singh argues Supreme Court precedent says “yes,” but a recent court decision seems to effectively immunize the executive branch from judicial scrutiny in these cases in the name of national security.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

Trumpian Impoundments in Historical Perspective

by  Zachary S. Price  

Reviving Nixon-era arguments, the Trump Administration claims the power to unilaterally withhold congressionally appropriated funds. In this Essay, Zachary Price dismantles the constitutional and practical case for presidential impoundment, and warns that letting the executive control the purse would threaten separation of powers and undermine democratic accountability.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

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Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

Leveraging Institutions: Imposing Unconstitutional Constraints on Individual Speech through State and Private Organizations

by  Bernadette Meyler  

President Trump has leveraged federal funds to induce private entities, like universities, to suppress individuals’ free speech. Bernadette Meyler proposes extending the “independent constitutional bar” test—traditionally applied to states—to private funding recipients when individual rights are affected. Otherwise, the federal government may evade accountability when it acts through intermediaries to circumvent constitutional limits.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

n. Zambrano 1

Symposium – Executive Overreach and the Rule of Law in Trump II

Due Process or the Rule of Law? Americans Speak a Different Legal Language

by  Diego A. Zambrano  

Drawing on global political histories, Diego Zambrano explores why many democracies abroad rally around “the rule of law,” while Americans reach instinctively for “due process.” He argues that distinction isn’t just rhetorical: it may leave Americans less equipped to recognize and resist attacks on democratic institutions.

Volume 78 (2025-2026)

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Essay

The Coming Assault on Categorical Gun Prohibitions

by  Ian Ayres & Fredrick E. Vars  

  Introduction Lower courts are grappling with challenges to what were, until recently, settled Second Amendment laws—most notably, the federal laws prohibiting felons and those involuntarily committed from purchasing or possessing firearms. These categorical prohibitions are two of the most prominent so-called “federal prohibitors.” People who fall into one or more of the prohibited categories…

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

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Essay

California, an Island?

by  Lincoln L. Davies, Stephanie Lenhart  

Lincoln L. Davies and Stephanie Lenhart warn that the energy future of the Western United States will be determined by the choices California makes over the next two years. Davies and Lenhart urge California to move towards a regional western electricity market to improve energy efficiency, reliability, and sustainability, and to avoid isolating California’s electricity market.

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

Lessnick Image

Essay

The Pardon Power and Federal Sentence-Reduction Motions: A Response to Yost and Flowers

by  Jaden M. Lessnick  

In his response to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and former Ohio Solicitor General Benjamin Flowers, Jaden Lessnick argues that the federal sentence-reduction statute (18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)) is not preempted by the presidential pardon power. Lessnick contends that the statute does not offend the traditional separation-of-powers principle, and preemption is not justified under the unitary executive theory.

Volume 77 (2024-2025)

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Response

Alternative Action After SFFA

by  Kim Forde-Mazrui  

Prof. Kim Forde-Mazrui of the University of Virginia responds to Sonja Starr’s print Article, The Magnet School Wars and the Future of Colorblindness. Forde-Mazrui argues that even if courts adopt the “ends-colorblindness” framework described by Starr, “alternative action” policies meant to promote diversity may still be constitutionally permissible.

Volume 76 (2023-2024)

Pending-Cases-and-Decisions

Symposium - 2023 – Access to Justice

The Making of the A2J Crisis

by  Nora Freeman Engstrom & David Freeman Engstrom  

Access to justice has become a defining legal and political issue. In this Essay, Nora Freeman Engstrom and David Freeman Engstrom work to identify the cause of the Access to Justice Crisis.

Volume 75 (2022-2023)

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Essay

The Criminally Complicated Copyright Questions about Trump’s Mugshot

by  Cathay Y. N. Smith  

The mugshot taken of Donald Trump in connection with his Georgia criminal prosecution has become one of the defining political images of the time. In this Essay, Cathay Y. N. Smith discusses who owns the copyright to this iconic photo.

Volume 76 (2023-2024)

Iodine_pills

Response

Too Late: Why Most Abortion Pill Administrative Procedure Challenges Are Untimely

by  Susan C. Morse & Leah R. Butterfield  

In this response piece to the Abortion Pills piece in the Stanford Law Review, Prof. Susan Morse and Leah Butterfield of the University of Texas explain why most administrative challenges to abortion pill regulations are untimely.

Volume 76 (2023-2024)

Full_Faith_and_Credit_Clause

Essay

Abortion, Blocking Laws, and the Full Faith and Credit Clause

by  Haley Amster  

In recent months, California and Washington have enacted statutes forbidding private corporations in their states from cooperating with other states’ efforts to enforce abortion bans. In this Essay, Haley Amster argues that such “blocking laws” do not violate the Full Faith and Credit Clause, and are constitutionally permissible.

Volume 76 (2023-2024)