Death, Ethics, and the State

Article published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy

The Constitutional Case for the Impeachability of Former Federal Officials: An Analysis of the Law, History, and Practice of Late Impeachment

Article published in the Texas Review of Law & Politics

Pardon Me: The Constitutional Case Against Presidential Self-Pardons

Article published in the Yale Law Journal

Three Levels of Stare Decisis: Distinguishing Common-law, Constitutional, and Statutory Cases

Article published in the Texas Review of Law & Politics

Crossing Eight Mile: Juries of the Vicinage and County-Line Criminal Buffer Statutes

Several state statutes allow the state to choose the county in which to prosecute a person who allegedly committed a crime near a county line. Because these buffer statutes apply even in cases where the location of the crime is not in doubt, they are inappropriate on two levels. First, they are needless as a matter of policy; other statutes solve all of the problems that buffers purport to address, but without the detrimental effects. Second, they conflict with the principle—traditional in some states but constitutionally required in others—of trial by a jury of the vicinage, i.e., from the neighborhood in which the crime was committed. While theorists have recently argued that local juries are important because they allow communities to govern themselves, courts\u27 treatment of buffer statutes makes it clear that, in practice, vicinage is not considered from this community-centered perspective

The Presidential Succession Act at 75 | The Twentieth Amendment, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, and Pre-Inaugural Problems

These remarks were delivered as part of the program entitled The Presidential Succession Act at 75: Praise It or Bury It?, which was held on April 6, 2022, and hosted by the Fordham University School of Law. The Presidential Succession Act sets out the presidential line of succession and other procedures for situations in which the president and vice president have both died, resigned, been removed, or become unable to discharge the presidency’s powers and duties. The Act also addresses succession scenarios before Inauguration Day. In light of the statute’s seventy-fifth anniversary, this program explored relevant history and analyzed whether reform to the statute is needed. In these remarks, Brian C. Kalt, a Professor and the Harold Norris Faculty Scholar at Michigan State University College of Law, focuses on the Presidential Succession Act of 1947’s interaction with the Constitution’s Twentieth Amendment, which deals with presidential succession before Inauguration Day

Impeachment and Its Discontents

What purpose do presidential impeachments serve if the Senate does not convict? Should impeachment be attempted at all if there is no chance of conviction? These questions remind me of the old joke in which someone is asked whether he believes in infant baptism. He replies, “Believe in it? Heck, I’ve actually seen it done.