Welcome
Jack M. Balkin is Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment at Yale Law School. He is the founder and director of Yale’s Information Society Project, an interdisciplinary center that studies law and new information technologies. He also directs the Abrams Institute for Freedom of Expression and the Knight Law and Media Program at Yale.
Books
Selected Essays
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We Are All Cafeteria Originalists Now (and We Always Have Been), __ William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal __ (forthcoming 2024), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4957209.
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The Problem of “Popular” “Sovereignty,” 5 Liberties 135 (2024)(with Sanford Levinson).
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What Lawyers Want From History, SSRN (September 17, 2024), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4983026.
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Teaching Constitutional Law Historically, SSRN (July 31, 2024), https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4911769.
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The Law of AI is the Law of Risky Agents Without Intentions, __ U. Chi. L. Rev. Online __ (forthcoming 2024)(with Ian Ayres), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4862025.
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Rabbi Akiva and the Crowns: A Parable of Constitutional Fidelity, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 1321 (2024), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4753755.
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Abortion, Partisan Entrenchment, and the Republican Party, in Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey Stone, eds, Roe v. Dobbs: The Past, Present, and Future of a Constitutional Right to Abortion (Oxford University Press, 2024), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4215863.
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Frederick Douglass as Constitutionalist, 83 Md. L. Rev. 260 (2023) (with Sanford Levinson), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4413720.
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Free Speech versus the First Amendment, 70 UCLA L. Rev. 1206 (2023), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4413721.
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Constitutional Memories, 31 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 307 (2022), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4106635.
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To Reform Social Media, Reform Informational Capitalism, in Lee C. Bollinger and Geoffrey R. Stone, eds., Social Media, Freedom of Speech, and the Future of our Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2022), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3925143.
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How to Do Constitutional Theory While Your House Burns Down, 101 B.U. L. Rev. 1723 (2021), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3860214.
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Rot and Renewal: The 2020 Election in the Cycles of Constitutional Time, 13 Northeastern U. L. Rev. 617 (forthcoming 2021), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3771453.
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Race and the Cycles of Constitutional Time, 86 Mo. L. Rev. 443 (2021), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3770410.
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Korematsu as the Tribute that Vice Pays to Virtue, 74 Ark. L. Rev. 255 (2021), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3700087.
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The Fiduciary Model of Privacy, 134 Harv. L. Rev. Forum 11 (2020), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3700087.
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Lawyers and Historians Argue About the Constitution, 35 Const. Comm. 345 (2020), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3670280.
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Obergefell v. Hodges: A Critical Introduction, in Jack M. Balkin, ed., What Obergefell v. Hodges Should Have Said: The Nation’s Top Legal Experts Rewrite America’s Same-Sex Marriage Decision (Yale University Press 2020), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3644376.
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How to Regulate (and Not Regulate) Social Media, 1 Journal of Free Speech Law 71 (2021), Knight Institute Occasional Paper Number 1 (March 25, 2020), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3484114.
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Translating the Constitution, 118 Mich. L. Rev. 997 (2020), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3423133.
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Why Liberals and Conservatives Flipped on Judicial Restraint: Judicial Review in the Cycles of Constitutional Time , 98 Tex L. Rev. 215 (2019), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3423135.
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The Recent Unpleasantness: Understanding the Cycles of Constitutional Time, 94 Indiana L. J. 253 (2019), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3222311.
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The First Amendment in the Second Gilded Age, 66 Buffalo L. Rev. 979 (2018), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3253939.
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Fixing Social Media’s Grand Bargain, Hoover Working Group on National Security, Technology, and Law, Aegis Series Paper No. 1814 (October 16, 2018), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3266942.
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Free Speech is a Triangle, 118 Colum. L. Rev. 2011 (2018), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3186205.
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Arguing About the Constitution: The Topics in Constitutional Interpretation, 33 Const. Comm. 145 (2018), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3133131.
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Free Speech in the Algorithmic Society: Big Data, Private Governance, and New School Speech Regulation, 51 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1149 (2018), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3038939.
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Constitutional Rot, in Can It Happen Here?: Authoritarianism in America, Cass R. Sunstein, ed. (Dey Street Books 2018), pp. 19-35, SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2992961.
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The Three Laws of Robotics in the Age of Big Data, 78 Ohio State L.J. 1217 (2018), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2890965.
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Constitutional Crisis and Constitutional Rot, 77 Maryland L. Rev. 147 (2017), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2993320.
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Democracy and Dysfunction: An Exchange, 50 Indiana L. Rev. 281 (2016), SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2820202 (with Sanford Levinson).
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Republicanism and the Constitution of Opportunity, 94 Tex. L. Rev. 1427 (2016), pdf, SSRN, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2783064.
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Which Republican Constitution?, 32 Const. Comm. 31 (2016), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2761513.
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Cultural Democracy and the First Amendment, 110 Nw. L. Rev. 1053 (2016), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2676027.
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Information Fiduciaries and the First Amendment, 49 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 1183 (2016), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2675270.
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To Alter or Abolish, 89 S. Cal. L. Rev. 399 (2016)(with Sanford Levinson), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2761525
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History, Rights, and the Moral Reading, 96 B.U. L. Rev. 1425 (2016), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2762382
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The Construction of Original Public Meaning, 31 Const. Comm. 71 (2016), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2653991.
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The Digital Transformation of Education, in EDUCATION AND SOCIAL MEDIA: TOWARD A DIGITAL FUTURE, Greenhow, C., Sonnevend, J. & Agur, C. eds., (MIT Press forthcoming 2016)(with Julia Sonnevend), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2759022.
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The Path of Robotics Law, 6 Calif. L. Rev. Circuit 45 (2015), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2586570.
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The Framework Model and Constitutional Interpretation, in in Philosophical Foundations of Constitutional Law, David Dyzenhaus and Malcom Thorburn, eds., (Oxford University Press, 2016), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2607105.
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Constitutional Change and Interpretation in the United States: The Official and the Unofficial, Jus Politicum, No. 14 (June 2015), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2594925.
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The Last Days of Disco: Why The American Political System is Dysfunctional, 94 B.U. L. Rev. 1159 (2014), pdf, SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2403508.
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Why Are Americans Originalist?, in LAW, SOCIETY AND COMMUNITY: SOCIO-LEGAL ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF ROGER COTTERRELL, David Schiff and Richard Nobles, eds. (Ashgate Publishing 2014), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2379587.
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Old School/New School Speech Regulation, 127 Harv. L. Rev. 2296 (2014), pdf, SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2377526.
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The New Originalism and the Uses of History, 82 Fordham L. Rev. 641 (2013), pdf, SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2303980.
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Verdi’s High C, 91 Tex. L. Rev. 1687 (2013), pdf, SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2240496.
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The Court Affirms the Social Contract, in The Health Care Case: The Supreme Court’s Decision and Its Implications (Nathaniel Persily, Gillian E. Metzger, and Trevor W. Morrison, eds., Oxford University Press 2013), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2234739.
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Must We be Faithful to Original Meaning?, 7 Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies 57 (2013), pdf, SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2258678.
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The American Constitution as “Our Law”, 25 Yale J. L. & Human. 113 (2013), SSRN, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2247584.
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For more essays see the bibliography