Recent | Take Care

Three Problems With the SG's Klan Hypo in the Masterpiece Cakeshop Oral Argument

If the baker loses in Masterpiece, could the government compel an African American sculptor to sculpt a cross for a Klan service? No, it could not.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

The Diversity Lottery and the Lottery of Birth

11/8/17 // Commentary

An immigration lottery has symbolic value. It symbolizes the role that luck plays in all our lives, including with respect to citizenship.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

The Pardon Power is a Bug, Not a Feature

11/1/17 // Commentary

The pardon power is a kind of booby trap that threatens to explode our system of constitutional accountability.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

The Trump DOJ's Puzzlingly Blasé View About Abortion Timing

10/30/17 // Commentary

DOJ's position was about opposition to abortion, full stop. This explains it's baffling indifference to delaying to the moral implications of delaying a second-trimester abortion by eleven days.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

The Travel Ban and the Ontology of the Compelling Interest Test

10/6/17 // In-Depth Analysis

Maybe the whole compelling interest test is misguided in Establishment Clause cases.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

Protecting Free Speech and Free Press From Motivated Malignancy

9/28/17 // In-Depth Analysis

Trump’s potential violations of free speech and press have much in common with his apparent violations of other constitutional limits

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

Trump on Compelled Speech: Unconstitutional for Bakers; Fine for NFL Players

9/25/17 // Commentary

Can Trump's Justice Department's position on Masterpiece Cakeshop be reconciled with his own views about professional athletes?

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

Graham-Cassidy Is Unconstitutional

9/22/17 // Commentary

Graham-Cassidy has a constitutional flaw: the funding formula for the block grants to states that form the bill’s core is unconstitutional.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

Trump's (Apparent) DACA Position Is At Odds With His Travel Ban Brief

9/4/17 // Commentary

The Trump administration will invoke whatever views of statutes and executive power maximize cruelty towards the foreign nationals he and his supporters most despise.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

The Arpaio Pardon Through the Lens of Trump Exceptionalism

8/26/17 // Commentary

This pardon by this most abnormal president threatens the rule of law

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

Neo-Nazis, Wedding Cakes, and Compelled Speech

8/24/17 // Commentary

Here I explore the interests asserted by GoDaddy and Google in denying service to neo-Nazis and their ilk. I then consider implications of my analysis for the pending Supreme Court case of Masterpiece Cake Shop v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm'n.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

Constitutional Arithmetic Post-Charlottesville: Sometimes One Plus One Equals Zero

8/20/17 // Commentary

No, the First and Second Amendments do not add up to a right to publicly protest while carrying assault rifles.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School

What's the Difference Between Confederate Leaders and Slave-owning Founding Fathers?

8/17/17 // Commentary

We honor Washington and Jefferson despite the fact that they owned slaves, whereas memorials to the likes of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Stonewall Jackson honor them because they fought for a secessionist movement that had the preservation of slavery as its organizing principle.

Michael C. Dorf

Cornell Law School