Extremely grateful to @lsolum.bsky.social for highlighting Anti-Holistic Algorithms 🙏🏻!
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Spring-inspired offprints! (Thank you
@vandylaw.bsky.social Law Review) If you’d like to join me in thinking more critically about the future of holistic criminal justice reforms in an era of algorithmic governance, give it a read (tinyurl.com/5cfjnku8)
#AcademicSky #AI #CriminalJustice

Spring-inspired offprints! (Thank you
@vandylaw.bsky.social Law Review) If you’d like to join me in thinking more critically about the future of holistic criminal justice reforms in an era of algorithmic governance, give it a read (tinyurl.com/5cfjnku8)
#AcademicSky #AI #CriminalJustice

Can holistic criminal justice survive algorithmic governance?
Another new 📄 of mine, “Anti-Holistic Algorithms,” now out with the @vandylaw.bsky.social Vanderbilt Law Review, grapples with this question (ssrn: shorturl.at/eyZhu)
abstract 👇 & short thread 1/6

Feedback welcome! Would love to hear any thoughts on this piece, which is the third installment in a series of papers on victimized offenders in domestic settings.

Cover page of a book manuscript. Title reads “Cultivating the City: The Long Struggle to Put Land to Use” Under that it says “By Nate Ela”

This is going off into production today @uchicagopress.bsky.social and I can’t wait to share it with the world next spring. A story of land, property, and social policy, told via Chicago’s farms and gardens, past and present.

I’m also thankful to Jessica Eaglin @gilatjbachar.bsky.social for thoughtful feedback and suggestions, and to the Vanderbilt Law Review editors for their superb editorial work. Comments welcome! 6/6

Farhang Heydari @mariemanikis.bsky.social Federica Coppola Jarrell Daniels Saira Mohamed Jonathan Simon Chris Slobogin @terrymaroney.bsky.social 5/6

I’m honored to publish this piece alongside a stellar group of scholars and grateful for the conversations we had as part of this special symposium on holistic criminal justice @hadardancigr.bsky.social Hadar Aviram Peter Dixon Jamelia Morgan @ericfish.bsky.social 4/6

I argue that algorithmic governance may further erode the foundations of desistance-based rehabilitation by weakening 3 crucial pillars of change: individual capacity for self-transformation, institutions’ commitment to enabling personal change,& society’s acceptance of redemptive possibility 3/6

As criminal legal systems increasingly rely on algorithmic risk-assessment tools, a deeper tension emerges. While much of today’s reform discourse promises holistic justice, in practice--I argue--it often reflects thin holism: repackaged risk management rather than genuine human transformation 2/6

Can holistic criminal justice survive algorithmic governance?
Another new 📄 of mine, “Anti-Holistic Algorithms,” now out with the @vandylaw.bsky.social Vanderbilt Law Review, grapples with this question (ssrn: shorturl.at/eyZhu)
abstract 👇 & short thread 1/6

Probably easiest decision ever 😉 Congrats — so well deserved 🎈

Happy to share that Developmental Evidence Rules is forthcoming in the California Law Review! What would it mean to take childhood seriously in evidence law? This article takes up that question.

Ally beat me to it, but excited to share that "Perinatal Palliative Care & Abortion," co-authored with @amwhelan.bsky.social, is forthcoming in the Virginia Law Review.

Abstract below and it will be up on SSRN as soon as SSRN allows...

My latest with the
@ucdavislaw.bsky.social Review
argues that plaintiffs’ lawyers can refuse harmful NDAs by defining the scope of representation at the outset and reclaiming their role as both advocates and stewards of justice. Check it out: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.... @templelaw.bsky.social

Thrilled that my article with William ("Chip") Carter, An Originalist Critique of Fetal Personhood, is now forthcoming in the Pennsylvania Law Review!!! It was weirdly fun to spend months buried in 19th century dictionaries & Locke's writings. We are still editing but hope to have it online soon!

My latest article with the one and only @spenceroverton.bsky.social called “Digital Ethnonationalism” forthcoming in University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Here is the papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Congrats!!

Great news — congrats 🎉 🎈

Very excited that @gelbach.bsky.social & I will be publishing "Bruen's Tenth Amendment Problem" in the @uchilrev.bsky.social!

Our central arg is that Bruen's erasure of unexercised powers violates the 10th Am's preservation of existing State power. Comments welcome!

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

My latest, "Free Exercise and the Redistribution of Liberty," is now posted (and forthcoming in @yalelawjournal.bsky.social). It argues that free exercise doctrine uses selective market logic to redistribute both public resources and liberty itself.

Comments welcome: papers.ssrn.com/abstract=618...

In Praise of Generative AI 65 Pages Posted: Last revised: 9 Feb 2026 Michael L. Smith University of Oklahoma - College of Law Date Written: February 09, 2026 Abstract In this article, I team up with the Worst People You Will Ever Meet in Law to praise generative AI. After introducing themselves, these actors explain how this technology is a godsend. The terrible lawyer describes how he remains asleep at the wheel and turns over motions, briefing, and client counseling to erratic AI. The worst clients explain how they now prepare all legal documents themselves and refuse to pay attorneys’ unwarranted fees. The lazy judge describes how she replaces party submissions with AI and delegates the task of reasoned judgment to technology. The horrible law professor describes how he’s outsourced teaching, assessment, and scholarship to a machine. The disengaged law student explains how she uses AI to circumvent class discussions and assignments. And the sovereign citizen explains how he’s able to generate harassing nonsense at an unprecedented scale. I close with reflections on what this might mean for the technology’s use in legal spaces, including the need for both advocates and critics of generative AI to consider how the technology will be misused and abused. Finally, I warn that prolonged generative AI usage might transform reasonable individuals into my terrible coauthors. Keywords: artificial intelligence, generative AI, large language models, legal writing, litigation, discovery, professional responsibility, misconduct, pedagogy, sovereign citizens, law and technology

My latest article, "In Praise of Generative AI," is forthcoming in the Iowa Law Review! In it, I present accounts from the Worst People You Will Ever Meet In Law in which they praise generative AI and all the extra terrible behavior it enables: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Thrilled to share that 𝐺𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑡 𝑏𝑦 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑜𝑑 has found a home with the Yale Law Journal. This piece examines parental liability regimes and parental rights, and how they are connected by a shared logic that harms children and families. Thank you to all those who read drafts and offered feedback!

Another new article of mine is officially out: “(Re)Individualizing Criminal Law,” (67 B.C L. Rev. 255 (2026): lnkd.in/eR9eF7Fv Abstract 👇 & v. short 🧵
1/6

The Article argues that algorithmic risk assessment tools are reshaping criminal law itself by moving the focus away from the foundational principle of subjective culpability. I explore these shifts & ask: can the system restore its commitment to that principle? Let me know what you think! 2/6

@brettfrischmann.bsky.social, Maša Galič, Katrina Geddes, Eve Hanan, Paul Heaton, Sarah Lageson, @marklemley.bsky.social .bsky.social, Evelyn Malave, Sandy Mayson, Nicola Padfield, @frankpasquale.bsky.social, Teri Ravenell, David Schwartz, David Sklansky, Sarah Swan, Christopher Yoo 4/6

This one has been long in the making and benefited from the wisdom and advice of many (apologies if there is someone I missed):
@gilatjbachar.bsky.social, @IsabellaBanks, @nbanteka.bsky.social, Matthew Bruckner, @buchhandler.bsky.social, @erincollins.bsky.social, @m2dempsey.bsky.social, 3/6