Selected Publications
Courts and the Law
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Defector: Tim Burke’s Indictment Is A Political Choice Disguised As A Legal Act
The government’s decision to prosecute Burke is an ominous sign for the future of journalism in a fractured meda environment.
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Balls & Strikes: Big Law's Cancel Culture, and Other Obviously Fake Things That Do Not Exist
Recasting law firms as victims of woke culture obscures the real-world impact of the work these firms do all day, every day, six minutes at a time
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San Francisco Chronicle: Trump Judge Kyle Duncan Got Exactly What He Wanted Out of Stanford: Fame
In a conservative legal movement fueled by grievance, strategic self-martyrdom is lucrative business.
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Defector: Spare a Thought For Samuel Alito, America's Worst Phillies Fan
Fair warning: This post contains pictures of Samuel Alito in baseball attire.
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Balls & Strikes: 'The Authority of the Court and the Peril of How Much I Love My Job,' by Stephen Breyer
The 83-year-old leader of the Court’s liberal wing is facing significant public pressure to step down from the bench. He decided to write a book instead.
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Balls & Strikes: Legal Journalism Is Broken
The conservative takeover of the Court is putting traditional legal media to the test. The results are not encouraging.
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The New York Times: Will the Supreme Court Gut the Voting Rights Act?
This year, the Supreme Court will answer a question with profound implications for the future of representative democracy in the United States: What kinds of voter suppression run afoul of the Voting Rights Act, and what kinds of voter suppression are not serious enough for federal judges to stop?
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The Atlantic: Liberals Were Right to Fear the Supreme Court's Election Intervention
The justices’ decision not to wade into a sloppy coup attempt is no victory for rule of law.
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The Appeal: Expanding the Supreme Court Is Not "Radical"
Rebalancing the nation’s highest court is a reasonable, proportionate response to a system that failed a long time ago.
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GQ: The 'Liberal Case' for Brett Kavanaugh Is a Bunch of Horseshit
Conservatives have been treating the Supreme Court as a political entity for years. Asking them to stop is not the answer.
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Selected Media Appearances
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Amicus Podcast: A Hair-Raising SCOTUS Curtain-Raiser
Host Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern and Jay Willis to discuss the evolving state of legal journalism in the era of a six-justice conservative supermajority.
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5-4 Podcast: Lassiter v. Department of Social Services
Jay joins the 5-4 podcast to discuss the Court’s ruling in Lassiter, which held that a mother at risk of losing her parental rights is not entitled to a lawyer.
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5-4 Podcast: Bowles v. Russell
The hosts are joined by Josie Duffy Rice and Jay Willis to discuss "Worst Supreme Court Justice of All Time" bracketology, Bowles v. Russell, and simple arithmetic.
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Strict Scrutiny Podcast: Toddler Logic
Leah Litman is joined by Josie Duffy Rice and Jay Willis to discuss Supreme Court-related news, preview the upcoming Voting Rights Act case, and chat about some emerging Fourth Amendment issues on the Court’s docket.
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News and Politics
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The Washington Post: Trump's Voter Fraud Lie Is Unraveling, But It Can Still Help the GOP
Republicans can use today’s rhetoric to thwart tomorrow’s turnout.
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The Appeal: Trump's Voter Fraud Lie Is the Oldest Trick in the Book
The president’s fearmongering over mail-in ballots is part of a long history of politicians denying members of marginalized communities, and particularly Black people, the right to vote.
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The Appeal: The Senate Filibuster Is Hollowing Out American Democracy
If Democrats win control of the Senate, allowing this archaic tradition to survive will make everything of significance the party hopes to accomplish virtually impossible.
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The Appeal: A National Evictions Cliff Is Coming. America's Failing Legal System Will Make It Worse
COVID-19 is disproportionately putting Black and Latinx people at higher risk of eviction, fueling a housing crisis that is already in progress.
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GQ: The Case for Abolishing the Senate
The upper chamber has become far more undemocratic than the Constitution's framers could ever have imagined. What would American government look like without it?
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GQ: Spygate: How Right-Wing Media Creates a Conspiracy Theory Out of Thin Air
This is how conservative media transformed a small news item into a full-blown conspiracy theory that the president (apparently) believes to be true.
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Culture and Reporting
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Fast Company: The MLB Uniform Fiasco Reveals Fanatics's Achilles' Heel: Ubiquity
A consequence of buying a monopoly is that everyone blames you when anything goes wrong.
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GQ: When You Give a Teacher a Gun
The question is no longer "should we arm teachers?" Now, it's "how many armed teachers are already out there?"
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The Atlantic: Who Will Run the Soup Kitchens?
Is it better to put volunteers and the needy at risk by keeping important services open, or to stay home, knowing people will go hungry as a result?
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The Appeal: Seattle Was Struggling to Care for Its Unhoused Population. Then Coronavirus Arrived.
Advocates for the area’s homeless residents say the pandemic will worsen the crisis they have already been living through.
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GQ: Could the NRA Be Taken Over from the Inside?
It’s a big idea that’s been floated before. Here, a peek inside the opaque world of the National Rifle Association’s leadership.
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GQ: Do You Know Who Owns Your Debt?
How the debt-buying and debt-collection industries put the squeeze on Americans.
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GQ: Guy Fieri Has a Lot to Say About the Warriors
The mayor of Flavortown talks about his friendship with E-40, his role in recruiting Kevin Durant, and his favorite (and least favorite) memories of rooting for his beloved Dubs.
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GQ: Adult Swam: The Joy of Finally Learning How to Swim
For years, the thought of swimming in front of other people filled me with dread. This year, I decided to finally do something about it.
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