Separation of Powers

Marvel fans far and wide are excited about the theatrical release of Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which introduced X-Men franchise fan favorite Professor X to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In the X-Men films, Professor X is a respected telepath who leads the mutants (humans with gene mutations that give them powers). The … ...

While we hear legal debates around originalism vs. textualism during high profile Supreme Court cases, they can often feel like vague terms. What exactly is originalism vs. textualism?  The late Justice Antonin Scalia called himself both an originalist and a textualist. Justice Neil Gorsuch is cconsidered “a proud textualist,” and yet ...

In the next few months, the Supreme Court will decide West Virginia v. EPA, a case that could be more important for what the justices say about the proper methods of statutory interpretation than whether a particular greenhouse gas regulation survives that evaluation. A New Yorker piece previewing the case earlier this year highlighted the … ...

Every parent wants their child to have access to a good education. But it’s no secret that your zip code makes a world of difference. Children in poor urban communities, who are overwhelmingly students of color, don’t have the same opportunities as students from the suburbs. Their public schools often fail them at the most … ...

Last Thursday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a historic piece of legislation that makes the legal system much fairer for Tennessee businesses and individuals. The new law flips wrongful judicial deference (also referred to as agency deference, or as Chevron or Auer deference at the federal level) on its head by instructing courts to review &# ...

The Tennessee legislature recently struck a blow for the individual freedoms of Tennesseans by approving SB2285, which Governor Lee is expected to sign. Though Governor Lee has admirably scaled back bureaucracy on many fronts, Tennesseans still must deal with government agencies from time to time. In these interactions, sometimes the individual and ...

In his April 8 New York Times column, Jamelle Bouie accuses the Supreme Court of being focused on “the interests and prerogatives of powerful political minorities—you might call them factions—that seek to dominate others free of federal interference.”   Bouie says that Americans frustrated with the Court might wish to get rid of j ...

Entering its second year in office, the Biden Administration continues to undermine statutory constraints on the administrative state. Most recently, it proposed repealing the Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely rule, or Sunset Rule, that had previously been adopted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) ...

In March 2020, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide public health emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing him to issue lockdown orders and close businesses however he saw fit. That was 744 days ago. Yet after so long — and even as the COVID cases drop — Newsom’s emergency order remains in … ...