Latest Posts:

Film Review: Conclave (2024)

There is a remarkable moment in Edward Berger’s film Conclave in which Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the Dean of the Conclave of Cardinals assembled to elect a new Pope, sits on
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Fish At Work: b.Sanhedrin 59

If you like nerding out on legal interpretation principles, today’s your day and b.Sanhedrin 59 is your page! In a nice, self-contained argument, the sages debate two important legal principles.
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Other People’s Families: b.Sanhedrin 58

Today’s page continues the peculiar conversation about the legal obligations that the Torah places on people who presumably have nothing to do with the Torah: gentiles, who according to the
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Noah’s Well-Behaved Sons: b.Sanhedrin 57

In the previous page, the sages started discussing whether death sentences for various transgressions apply to non-Jews as well, leading them to reexamine and carefully delineate the scope of the
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What Fresh Heaven Is This?

We’re already on Page 56 and I realized that I haven’t provided a sufficient introduction to what I’m doing with this project, so here’s a belated introduction. One of the
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Freedom of No Speech

You’ve probably heard about Ilya Shapiro’s fateful visit to my home institution last year, when my students shouted him off the stage because of his ill-conceived public posts about diversity
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Covid-19 in Prisons

Euthanize the Death Penalty Already: Scenes from Capital Punishment’s Chronic Deathbed

(published: The Green Bag 27(3), Spring 2024) INTRODUCTION J.R.R. Tolkien’s immortal Lord of the Rings tells of the crossing of the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, during which members of the Fellowship
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Damages Lawsuits for Prison COVID-19 Neglect Proceed

If you’ve followed this blog during COVID-19, when we were litigating Eighth Amendment cases at Quentin and beyond, or read FESTER (you should!), then you know an unpleasant truth about
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Race and Justice

Children’s Books About Prisons

Friend, are you heading to a birthday or baby shower? If you like bringing books as gifts, and want the books to be meaningful, I’d steer away from tiresome sloganeering
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Left Realism Matters More than Ever in Criminology

Houston, we have a bit of a problem. Having just finished writing my term papers at the GTU, I’ve turned to grading exams (will be done soon! I promise!) and
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