Michael Smith

@msmith750.bsky.social

Posts

Assistant Professor at St. Mary's University School of Law. Researching constitutional law, criminal law, and legal oddities.

Posts Replies Media

Reposted by

Michael Smith

I also made a constitutional law starter pack. I tried to not double-count administrative law pack members so more people get included! Cc, again: @joshuajfriedman.com go.bsky.app/MDDmJYL

Constitutional Lawbsky.app Join the conversation

Reposted by

Michael Smith

#CrimWIP #1 for the summer is now scheduled for next Monday at 1 pm central and we’ll be hearing from @yeargain.bsky.social , @msmith750.bsky.social, and me! Interested in joining our group for non-judgmental but constructive feedback? Send me an email!

Check out this essay I wrote last week about what originalism might be a thousand years from now and what this might teach us about classifying instances of constitutional interpretation! It has footnote jokes! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Reposted by

Michael Smith

We're thrilled to be in Chicago at Northwestern Law School co-sponsoring an academic roundtable on state courts with Dan Rodriguez and @zclopton.bsky.social!

Dropping by to plug my forthcoming article, "Papering Justices," where I suggest that each side to Supreme Court cases get a chance to summarily kick a Justice of their choice off the case. Hoping to add some much-needed chaos to the court-reform debates! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Presenting...the books I read in 2023!

On my way to Baltimore for the National Communication Association Annual Conference! And ready for a virtual symposium at the University of St. Thomas School of Law tomorrow! Presenting at both on Netchoice v. Paxton, 303 Creative, and related First Amendment issues!

Reposted by

Michael Smith

It has been the greatest honor of my career to write a Foreword for the Harv Law Rev. I am grateful to be able to tell this story and tell it from the heart in such a prominent forum. As always, I dream of a day when words can change minds and hearts—and worlds: harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/u...

Reposted by

Michael Smith

Hot off the presses! My new article in the Cornell Law Review: www.cornelllawreview.org/2023/11/03/t.... It concerns the uncertain constitutional status of criminal supervision (probation, parole, and supervised release), and when violation hearings trigger the right to a jury trial.

Heading to Chicago today for the Constitutional Law Colloquium at Loyola University Chicago School of Law! If you'll be there as well, say hello!

Reposted by

Michael Smith

1/7 A draft of my most recent article, Anti-Transgender Constitutional Law (forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review), is now up on SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=462.... In the piece, I document the rise of a new phenomenon: constitutional claims in opposition to transgender rights.

Halloween 2023! Inspired by Michael Clayton (2007)

Reposted by

Michael Smith

Overnight, I wrote about a fake majority opinion published by a dissenting Fifth Circuit judge in the death penalty case of Jedidiah Murphy, who Texas wants to execute today. Read up on Judge Jerry E. Smith’s move, which is both confusing and bad, at Law Dork. www.lawdork.com/p/a-dissenti...

A dissenting Fifth Circuit judge published a fake majority opinion in a death penalty casewww.lawdork.com After losing a vote to allow an execution to proceed, Judge Jerry E. Smith published "the Fifth Circuit panel opinion that should have been issued" as an attachment to his dissent.

Reposted by

Michael Smith

My essay for Vanderbilt Law Review's evidence symposium on the federal rules of evidence at 50 is now available on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Out in print: "Originalism and the Meaning of 'Twenty Dollars.'" What did "twenty dollars mean in 1791? Answering this question is tougher than you might think, which casts doubt on originalism. Waiting on the final pdf, but you can read an earlier version here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Reposted by

Michael Smith

Very much looking forward to the Fordham Urban Law Journal 2nd Amendment symposium next month. My short contribution concerns the way that 2A doctrine makes different time periods relevant for different questions w/out explaining why. Draft on SSRN: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Happy to announce that my article, "Moral Panic and the First Amendment" will be published in the Buffalo Law Review! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... I address drag bans and CRT restrictions, First Amendment implications of these laws, and how moral panic relates to broader First Amendment debates.

Late night. Time for campus possum posts.

Just posted my latest draft article, "Constitutional Crimes," forthcoming in the North Dakota Law Review: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... I analyze criminal provisions in the US and state constitutions, and discuss questions they raise re democratic legitimacy and interpretation. Comments welcome!

My thoughts on the discussion over whether Section Three of the 14th Amendment disqualifies Trump from office, focusing on questions of constitutional interpretation that are overlooked and oversimplified: smithblawg.blogspot.com/2023/09/sect...

Section Three, Originalism, and Interpretive Alternativessmithblawg.blogspot.com William Baude and Michael Stokes Paulsen have written a recent article , "The Sweep and Force of Section Three," in which they argue that Se...

Looking for some weekend reading? Check out my latest essay, "Language Models, Plagiarism, and Legal Writing," forthcoming in the University of New Hampshire Law Review! https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4542723

Language Models, Plagiarism, and Legal Writingpapers.ssrn.com Language models like ChatGPT are the talk of the town in legal circles. Despite some high-profile stories of fake ChatGPT-generated citations, many practitioner

Got my key to the office! Batch number one of books is on the shelves with much more to follow!

Made it! Follow me for thoughts on constitutional law, criminal law, or (on fun days) legal oddities! Here's a post from a couple years ago explaining that last piece of my research agenda and why I think it matters: https://smithblawg.blogspot.com/2021/09/in-praise-of-legal-oddities-explaining.html

In Praise of Legal Oddities: Explaining My Research Agendasmithblawg.blogspot.com During my second year of law school and for a few years thereafter, I dove into the world of writing and publishing legal scholarship. I wro...

End of feed.