The Yale Law Journal


RECENT


Article

Resurrecting the Trinity of Legislative Constitutionalism

From 1919 to 1969, the Offices of the Legislative Counsel in the Senate and House drafted precedential opinions to advise lawmakers on constitutional and subconstitutional questions. This Article lifts the curtain on this institution, revealing a hidden system that worked to reify congressional power and stymie a rising juristocracy.

30 May 2025
Legal HistoryLegislationAdministrative LawConstitutional Law

Article

Antiracist Expert Evidence

This Article introduces “antiracist expert evidence,” an underutilized tool to prove racism in court. Based on a nationwide survey of defense attorneys, it explores the evidence’s utility, identifies barriers to use, and offers strategies to overcome them, aiming to begin to level the evidentiary playing field for criminal defendants.

30 May 2025
EvidenceAntidiscrimination LawCriminal LawCritical Race Theory

Feature

Congressional Intervention in Agency Adjudication: The Case of Veterans’ Appeals

Prevailing constitutional interpretation sees Congress’s role as legislative, but members of Congress frequently exert nonlegislative influence on agencies by intervening directly on individual claimants’ behalf. This Feature provides an empirical portrait of congressional intervention in veterans’ appeals through internal administrative data and discusses its implications for constitutional and administrative law.

30 May 2025
Administrative LawCongress

Note

To Be Given to God: Contemporary Civil Forfeiture as a Taking

Civil asset forfeiture was once a law-enforcement tool. Today, however, police and prosecutors use forfeiture to fundraise, not to fight crime. This Note challenges the constitutionality of these profit-motivated government confiscations. It argues that these “contemporary civil forfeitures” are not forfeitures at all—they are compensable takings.

30 May 2025
Constitutional LawCivil-Rights LawPropertyCriminal ProcedureCivil ProcedureLegal History

Article

Disestablishment at Work

After several decades, the Supreme Court has revised its interpretation of employment-discrimination law requiring religious accommodations, creating waves of new litigation. Latent in the doctrine, principles of nondisparagement, reciprocity, and proportionality can guide courts in resolving these claims while also anchoring nonjudicial strategies to protect employees’ basic rights.

30 Apr 2025
Antidiscrimination LawEstablishment ClauseConstitutional LawCivil-Rights Law

Article

The Lost English Roots of Notice-and-Comment Rulemaking

Using new archival research, this Article argues that notice-and-comment rulemaking emerged from a series of American transplantations of English rulemaking procedures. Yet, as this Article emphasizes, during the 1930s and 1940s Americans only partially adopted the English framework. The rejection of laying procedures implicates the legitimacy of our rulemaking system.

30 Apr 2025
Administrative LawLegal HistoryComparative Law


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