The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, JLPP’s online blog featuring student commentary on current cases and legal developments!
If you are interested in becoming a Staff Writer or Contributing Writer for the Roundtable, e-mail Notes Editors Kyle Reynolds (mreynolds@jd18.law.harvard.edu) or Chadwick Harper (charper@jd19.law.harvard.edu).
A Mandate to Discriminate?: Why the Establishment Clause Does Not Justify the Exclusion of Religious Charter Schools – Erin Hawley
PDF A Mandate to Discriminate?: Why the Establishment Clause Does Not Justify the Exclusion of Religious Charter Schools. Erin Hawley* Introduction In a pair of consolidated cases, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond and St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School v. Drummond, the Supreme Court will consider whether the Establishment Clause authorizes Oklahoma to discriminate against religious groups who seek to participate in the state’s charter-school program alongside secular groups. Oklahoma invites any individual or...
read moreHuman Flourishing and the Law – Justice Jimmy Blacklock
Download PDF Human Flourishing and the Law Justice Jimmy Blacklock* Welcome to Texas everybody, and welcome to Austin. It’s a beautiful time of year here, isn’t it? It’s a beautiful day today—flowers blooming, sun shining but not too hot. I hope you’ll all be able to enjoy it this afternoon after the conference. There’s nothing quite like taking a quiet walk on a beautiful day to remind yourself that maybe this whole human flourishing thing is not as complicated as we might think. I can’t begin to talk about human flourishing and the law...
read moreOriginalism as an Empty Signifier — Or Bassok
PDF Originalism as an Empty Signifier Or Bassok* Introduction In her articles Memory Games: Dobbs’s Originalism as Anti-Democratic Living Constitutionalism—and Some Pathways for Resistance[1] and The “Levels of Generality” Game, or “History and Tradition” as the Right’s Living Constitution,[2] Reva Siegel concludes that originalism has been used as doublespeak.[3] Originalism purports to be a genuine interpretative method that offers to decipher the meaning of the constitutional text based on the meaning ascribed to the constitutional text...
read moreParental Preclusion Policies: Do Parents Have Standing to Challenge Them Before Enforcement? – S. Ernie Walton
Download PDF Parental Preclusion Policies: Do Parents Have Standing to Challenge Them Before Enforcement? S. Ernie Walton* Introduction The parent-child relationship is a bedrock of American civilization. Blackstone called it the “most universal relation in nature,”[1] and the Supreme Court has declared that the “primary role of the parents in the upbringing of their children is [] established beyond debate as an enduring American tradition.”[2] This “primary role” includes the right to “direct” their children’s “religious upbringing,”[3]...
read moreSuicide, Suicidality, and Pediatric Medical Transition in United States v. Skrmetti and Beyond
Download PDF Introduction Children and adolescents experiencing gender discordance are a vulnerable population. A part of that vulnerability is expressed in high rates of accompanying mental health diagnoses and symptoms. Among the most frightening mental health issues faced by this population, and by their parents and families, is suicide, and more broadly suicidality, which can be defined as “the risk of suicide, usually indicated by suicidal ideation or intent . . .” or as “suicidal thoughts, plans, gestures, or attempts.”[1] The risks of...
read moreContra Koppelman: What Mere Natural Law was About – Hadley Arkes
Download PDF Contra Koppelman: What Mere Natural Law was About Hadley Arkes Andrew Koppelman and I have just missed connecting at different meetings over the last several months; I know he was eager to give me his reactions to Mere Natural Law, and now, I’m pleased enough to see, he has had his chance to unloose them. I appreciate, as ever, his willingness to engage an argument, and I feel especially complimented here by his willingness to draw passages from other books of mine, from years past. But I’m afraid that while he takes fragments...
read moreCritiquing Hadley Arkes’s not-so-mere Natural Law Theory – Andrew Koppelman
Download PDF Critiquing Hadley Arkes’s not-so-mere Natural Law Theory Andrew Koppelman* Law can’t be separated from morality, because law is a kind of human conduct. So is compliance with the law. Morality constrains all of human conduct. So the idea of natural law, a set of moral constraints binding on any possible legal system, has perennial appeal. Hadley Arkes is a leading contemporary proponent of a revived natural law. His prominence is deserved. His work is smart and learned and entertaining. He writes with admirable moral...
read moreThe Third Rails of Second Amendment Jurisprudence: Guidance on Deriving Historical Principles Post-Bruen – Mark W. Smith
Download PDF The Third Rails of Second Amendment Jurisprudence: Guidance on Deriving Historical Principles Post-Bruen Mark W. Smith* This article proposes a method by which courts and litigants can resolve recurring questions presented in litigation over the right to keep and bear arms. Three Supreme Court cases, District of Columbia v. Heller (2008),[2] New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022),[3] and United States v. Rahimi (2024)[4] established a text-first, history-second methodology for deciding whether a...
read moreMisconstruing the Electoral Count Act: A Response to Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte – Seth Barrett Tillman
Download PDF Misconstruing the Electoral Count Act: A Response to Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte Seth Barrett Tillman* In an article appearing on The Hill,[1] Evan A. Davis and David M. Schulte put forward the position that president-elect Trump is barred by Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment from becoming President. Or, to put it more plainly, in spite of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. Anderson,[2] Congress is free to ignore the Court’s decision and to determine that Trump was and remains disqualified. In those...
read moreSt. John Henry Newman’s Development of Doctrine and Law: Some Preliminary Notes and Questions – Jeffrey A. Pojanowski
Download PDF St. John Henry Newman’s Development of Doctrine and Law: Some Preliminary Notes and Questions Jeffrey A. Pojanowski* When one thinks about the relationship between Newman’s thought on the development of doctrine in the Church and the development of legal doctrine, it is hard to know where to begin. There are so many potential parallels and fruitful avenues of inquiry, but also worries about superficial resemblances or imperfect analogies between theological doctrine and legal doctrine. This is all the more challenging because...
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