Professor Kurt Lash teaches and writes about constitutional law. Founder and director of the Richmond Program on the American Constitution, Professor Lash has published widely on the subjects of constitutional history, theory and law, including The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges or Immunities of American Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2014), The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment (Oxford University Press, 2009), and The American First Amendment in the Twenty-first Century: Cases and Materials (with William W. Van Alstyne) (5th ed., Foundation Press). He is currently working on a two-volume collection of original documents relating to the framing and ratification of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. Titled “The Reconstruction Amendments: Essential Documents,” the work will be published by University of Chicago Press in late 2019. An elected member of the American Law Institute, Professor Lash also serves on the advisory committee for the Reconstruction Amendments exhibit at the National Constitution Center. Professor Lash’s work has appeared in numerous legal journals including the Stanford Law Journal, Georgetown Law Journal, Virginia Law Review, and Notre Dame Law Review. He has been a visiting professor at Northwestern University School of Law and is the former director of the University of Illinois College of Law Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law.
Wayne R. LaFave Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship (book) (2015)
Carroll P. Hurd Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship (article) (2011)
Peterson Prize for Writing on Federalism and the Tenth Amendment, Willamette Center for Law and Government for "James Madison's 'Celebrated Report' of 1800: The Transformation of the Tenth Amendment" (2005)
The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment, Opening Address, Symposium on the 150th Anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment, George Mason University, Scalia Law School (Sept. 2018).
The Fourteenth Amendment at 150: Understanding its Historical and Contemporary Implications, Panelist, Law and Society Annual Meeting, Toronto, Canada (June 2018)
The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment and America’s Second Founding, Panelist, National Constitution Center’s Celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment (April 2018).
Federalism and the Fourteenth Amendment, Keynote Address, Symposium on Federalism: Past, Present and Future, Pepperdine School of Law (June 2018)
A Troubled Birth of Freedom: On the Anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment, Stranahan Lecture, University of Toledo College of Law (Spring 2018) (endowed lecture)
Fourteenth Amendment, First Principles, Panelist, Federalist Society National Student Symposium (March 2018)
The Second Founding: Reconstruction and The Fourteenth Amendment, Panelist, 2018 Annual Conference, Association of American Law Schools.
Reconstruction and The Fourteenth Amendment, panel presentation, 2018 Annual Conference, Association of American Law Schools (AALS).
On the Anniversary of the Fourteenth Amendment, Stranahan Lecture, University of Toledo College of Law (Spring 2018) (endowed lecture)
The Two Thirteenth Amendments, Drake Law School Distinguished Speaker Series, Des Moines, IA (2017) (endowed lecture)
Corpus Linguistics and Legal Interpretation, Federalist Society Annual Faculty Conference, San Francisco, CA (2017) (panel moderator)
The Reconstruction Amendments: Essential Documents (two volumes) (under contract with University of Chicago Press).
The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges or Immunities of American Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
The American First Amendment in the Twenty-First Century: Cases and Materials (with William W. Van Alstyne) (5th ed., Foundation Press, 2014).
The Lost History of the Ninth Amendment (Oxford University Press, 2009).
Enforcing the Rights of Due Process: The Original Relationship Between the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1866 Civil Rights Act, 106 Geo. L.J. 1389 (2018).
George Washington’s Constitution: A Review of Saikrishna Prakash, Imperial From the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive (Yale, 2015), The New Rambler Review (2016).
The Sum of All Delegated Power, 124 Yale L.J. F. 180 (2014).
Originalism All the Way Down?, 30 Const. Comment. 149 (2014).
The Cost of Judicial Error: Stare Decisis and the Role of Normative Theory, 89 Notre Dame L. Rev. 5 (2014).
Inkblot: The Ninth Amendment as Textual Justification for Judicial Enforcement of the Right to Privacy, 80 U. Chi. L. Rev. Dialogue 219 (2013).
The Constitutional Referendum of 1866: Andrew Johnson and the Original Meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, 101 Geo. L.J. 1275 (2013).
Resolution VI: The Virginia Plan and Authority to Resolve Collective Action Problems Under Article I, Section 8, 87 Notre Dame L. Rev. 2123 (2012).
Federalism, Individual Rights and Judicial Engagement, 19 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 873 (2012).
The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Part II: John Bingham and the Second Draft of the Fourteenth Amendment, 99 Geo. L.J. 329 (2011).
Beyond Incorporation, 18 J. Contemp. Legal Issues (2010).
The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Part I: “Privileges and Immunities” as an Antebellum Term of Art, 98 Geo. L.J. 1241 (2010).
--Cited by United States Supreme Court, McDonald v. Chicago (2010).
Leaving the Chisholm Trail: The Eleventh Amendment and the Background Principle of Strict Construction, 50 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1577 (2009).
Originalism as Jujitsu, 25 Const. Comment. 521 (2009).
The Original Meaning of an Omission: The Tenth Amendment, Popular Sovereignty and “Expressly” Delegated Power, 83 Notre Dame L. Rev. 101 (2008).
Federalism, Freedom and the Founders’ View of Retained Rights, 60 Stan. L. Rev. 969 (2008).
A Textual-Historical Theory of the Ninth Amendment, 60 Stan. L. Rev. 895 (2008).
The Inescapable Federalism of the Ninth Amendment, 93 Iowa L. Rev. 801 (2008).
Of Inkblots and Originalism: Historical Ambiguity and the Case of the Ninth Amendment, 31 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 467 (2008).
Three Myths of the Ninth Amendment, 56 Drake L. Rev., 101 (2008).
Originalism, Popular Sovereignty and Reverse Stare Decisis, 93 Va. L. Rev. 1437 (2007).
Minority Report: John Marshall and the Defense of the Alien and Sedition Acts, 68 Ohio St. L.J. 435 (2007) (with Alicia Harrison).
Tucker’s Rule: St. George Tucker and the Limited Construction of Federal Power, 47 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1343 (2006).
James Madison’s Celebrated Report of 1800: The Transformation of the Tenth Amendment, 74 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 165 (2006).
The Lost Jurisprudence of the Ninth Amendment, 83 Tex. L. Rev. 597 (2005).
The Lost Original Meaning of the Ninth Amendment, 83 Tex. L. Rev. 331 (2004).
The Constitutional Convention of 1937: The Original Meaning of the New Jurisprudential Deal, 70 Fordham L. Rev. 459 (2001).
Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty, 16 J.L. & Religion 569 (2001) (Book Review).
Two Movements of a Constitutional Symphony: Akhil Amar’s The Bill of Rights , 33 U. Rich. L. Rev. 485 (1999).
Power and the Subject of Religion, 59 Ohio St. L.J. 1069 (1998).
The Status of Constitutional Religious Liberty at the End of the Millennium, 32 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 1 (1998).
Civilizing Religion, 65 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1100 (1997).
The Second Adoption of the Establishment Clause: The Rise of the Non-Establishment Principle, 27 Ariz. St. L.J. 1085 (1995).
--Cited by United States Supreme Court in Greece v. Galloway (2014).
--Excerpts of this article are reprinted in The Establishment Clause: An Anthology (Alan Brownstein ed.)(Prometheus, 2007).
Rejecting Conventional Wisdom: Federalist Ambivalence in the Framing and Implementation of Article V, 38 Am. J. Legal Hist. 197 (1994)
The Second Adoption of the Free Exercise Clause: Religious Exemptions Under the Fourteenth Amendment, 88 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1106 (1994).
The Ninth Amendment, subject entry in The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (2008).
Unenumerated Rights, subject entry in The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (2008).
Government Aid to Religion, Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (1999).
School Choice, Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (1999).
Religion and Secularism in Constitutional Interpretation and Democratic Debate, in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (1999).
Five Models of Church Autonomy: An Historical Look at Religious Liberty Under the United States Constitution, in Church Autonomy: A Comparative Survey (Gerhard Robbers, ed. 2001, Peter Lang Publishers).
