Kurt Lash
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Profile
Professor Kurt Lash is the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Richmond where he teaches and writes about constitutional law. Founder and director of the Richmond Program on the American Constitution, Professor Lash has published a number of works 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). In 2021, University of Chicago Press published Prof. Lash’s 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 collection is the first of its kind. Prof. Lash is currently working on “A Troubled Birth of Freedom: The Struggle to Amend the Constitution in the Aftermath of the Civil War” (forthcoming, Yale University Press). 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, and on the advisory committee for the “Quill Project,” a corpus linguistics institute co-sponsored by Oxford University and Utah Valley University. 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.Expand All
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Awards
Wayne R. LaFave Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship (book) (2015)
Carroll P. Hurd Award for Excellence in Faculty Scholarship (article) (2011)
Willamette Center for Law and Government for "James Madison's 'Celebrated Report' of 1800: The Transformation of the Tenth Amendment" Peterson Prize for Writing on Federalism and the Tenth Amendment (2005)
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Presentations
"The Reconstruction Amendments," Constitution 101, National Constituton Center (March 2023)
"Originalism: Types and Methods," Law and Corpus Linguistics Judicial Retreat, Judicial education Institute (March 2023)
"Fixing the Fourteenth Amendment," Edwin Meese II Award for Originalist Scholarship, Heritage Foundation (March 2023)
"Defending the Slaughterhouse Decision," National Constitution Center Podcast, National Constitution Center (February 2023)
"The State Citizenship Clause," Michigan Law Workshop on Public Law, University of Michigan School of Law (February 2023)
"The State Citizenship Clause," University of Penn. Carey School of Law Constitutional Law Symposium, Penn. Journing of Caonstitutional Law (January 2023)
"The Original Meaning of the Ninth Amendment," NwU Workshop, Northwestern University School of Law, Federalist Society Chapter (November 2022)
"Originalism and the Reconstruction Amendments ," University of Florida Levin School of Law, Federalist Society (October 2022)
"Building the Reconstruction Amendments," Reconstruction Amendments: The Roots of Civil Rights, Center for the Constitution, Utah Valley University (September 2022)
"Building the Reconstruction Amendments," Oxford University "The Civil Rights Amendments", Quill Project, Pembroke College, Oxford University (July 2022)
"Federalism and Freedom: Lincoln Republicans and The Fourteenth Amendment," Lincoln Library Lecture, Midwestern Conference, Lawyers Division, Federalist Society (April 2022)
"Building the Reconstruction Amendments," Conference on Reconstruction Amendments, University of Chicago School of Law (April 2022)
"The Fourteenth Amendment: Text and Historical Context," ASU Workshop on the Fourteenth Amendment, Arizona State University; Federalist Society (April 2022)
"Originalism: Theories and Methodology," Judicial Retreat at the Greenbrier Resort: Originalism and Corpus Linguistics, Judicial Education Institute (February 2022)
"Beyond the First Amendment on Campus Free Expression," NASPA Student Affairs Law and Policy Conference, (December 2021)
"Documenting Reconstruction," Constitutional Law Colloquium, George Washington University (November 2021)
Lecturer, "The Transformation of the Bill of Rights," Annual Conference on Constitutional Principles and History, Christopher Newport University (October 2021)
"Ending Slavery, Expanding Liberty: The History of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments," The Shepherd's Center of Richmond's Open University, Richmond's Open University (October 2021)
"The Federalist Papers Between the Founding and the Civil War," American Political Science Association Annual Conference, APSA (October 2021)
Panelist, "The Reconstruction Amendments: Essential Documents (book discussion)," Panel discussion with Richard Primus (Michigan) and Chris Green (Ole Miss), Cato Institute (September 2021)
Panelist, "The Supreme Court's Religion Cases," UR Law School Constitution Day Panel Discussion, Federalist Society and American Constitution Society (September 2021)
Presenter, "The Transformation of the Bill of Rights," Law Library of Congress Constitution Day Lecture, Law Library of Congress (September 2021)
Panelist, "The Original Meaning of Section One of the Fourteenth Amendment," Panel Discussion with Eric Foner and Michael Curtis, California Academy of Appellate Lawyers (May 2021)
Panelist, "Do We Need a Third Reconstruction? ," Panel Discussion with Sherrilyn Ifill and Jeffrey Rosen, National Constitution Center (April 2021)
Panelist, "Was the Original Constitution an Anti- Slavery or Pro-Slavery Document?," Panel Discussion of Sean Wilentz's Book "No Property in Man", Georgetown Law Center (April 2021)
Presenter, "The First Amendment Religion Clauses," Scholar Exchange, National Constitution Center (February 2021)
Panelist, "The Public's Understanding of Originalism," "Originalism Under Fire", University of Virginia, Student Chapter of Federalist Society (February 2021)
Presenter, "Three Stories about the Constitution: The Declaration, The Founding and the Fourteenth Amendment," Constitution Day, National Constitution Center (September 2020)
Presenter, "A Troubled Birth of Freedom: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Struggle to Secure the Victory of the Civil War," National Association of Attorneys General's annual State Solicitors General and Appellate Chiefs Conference, National Association of Attorneys Generals (July 2019)
Presenter, "The creation of the new permanent exhibit on the Reconstruction Amendments," The National Constitution Center (May 2019)
Presenter, "The Drafting of the Reconstruction Amendments," Grand Opening, Gallery/Exhibit: The Reconstruction Amendments, National Constitution Center (May 2019)
Presenter, "Federalism and Reconstruction," Reconstruction at 150, Duke Law School (March 2019)
Presenter, "The Drama of the Fourteenth Amendment," Citizenship and the Fourteenth Amendment, Gettysburg College (March 2019)
Presenter, "The Enumerated Rights Reading of the Privileges or Immunities Clause," Federalist Society Student Symposium, Arizona State University School of Law (March 2019)
Presenter, "Young Scholar Works-In-Progress," Association of American Law Schools Annual Conference, Federalist Society Division, Association of American Law Schools (January 2019)
Presentations Prior to 2019
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Memberships
Member, American Bar Association
Member, American Society for Legal History
Member, International Association of Constitutional Law
Member, Washington State Bar
Elected Member, American Law Institute: Consultative Group for the Uniform Commercial Code - Revisions to Articles 1, 2, 2A, 2B, 3, 4, 4A, 5, and 9; Consultative Group for the Restatement of Suretyship and the Transnational Insolvency Project (2016 - present)
Chair, Association of American Law Schools, Section on Constitutional Law (2008 - present)
Executive Committee, Association of American Law Schools, Section on Constitutional Law (2007 - present)
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Professional Experience
E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law (2017 - present)
University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VAGuy Raymond Jones Chair in Law (2013 - 2017)
University of Illinois College of LawCo-Director, Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law (2011 - 2017)
University of Illinois College of LawAlumni Distinguished Professor of Law (2010 - 2013)
University of Illinois College of LawVisiting Professor of Law (2012 - 2012)
Northwestern University School of LawJames P. Bradley Professor of Constitutional Law (2008 - 2010)
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CAD & L Straus Distinguished Visiting Professor (2008 - 2008)
Pepperdine University School of Law, Malibu, CAW. Joseph Ford Fellow (1999 - 2008)
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CAProfessor of Law (1996 - 1999)
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CAAssistant Professor (1993 - 1996)
Loyola Law School, Los Angeles, CALaw Clerk to the Hon. Robert R. Beezer (1992 - 1993)
U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
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Awards
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Publications
Books
A Troubled Birth of Freedom: The Struggle to Amend the Constitution in the Aftermath of the Civil War (Yale University Press)
The Reconstruction Amendments: Essential Documents (two volumes) (University of Chicago Press) (April 2021).
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).
Journal ArticlesRoe and the Original Meaning of the Thirteenth Amendment, 21 Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy 131 (2023).
The Federalist and the Fourteenth Amendment-- Publius in Antebellum Public Debate, 1788-1860, 48 BYU Law Review 1831 (2023).
Becoming the Bill of Rights: The 1791 Amendments from the Founding to the Fourteenth Amendment, Virginia Law Review
The State Citizenship Clause, Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law
Re-Speaking the Bill of Rights: A New Theory of Incorporation, 97 Indiana Law Journal 1439 (2022).
McCulloch v. Madison: John Marshall's Effort to Bury Madisonian Federalism, Arkansas Law Review (2020).
The Enumerated-Rights of the Privileges or Immunities Clause: A Response to Barnett and Bernick, 95 Notre Dame Law Review 591 (2019).
Enforcing the Rights of Due Process: The Original Relationship between the Fourteenth Amendment and the 1866 Civil Rights Act, 106 Georgetown Law Journal 1389 (2018).
Originalism All the Way Down?, 30 Constitutional Commentary 149 (2014).
The Cost of Judicial Error: Stare Decisis and the Role of Normative Theory, 89 Notre Dame Law Review 5 (2014).
The Sum of All Delegated Power: A Response to Richard Primus, the Limits of Enumeration, 124 Yale Law Journal Forum 180 (2014).
Inkblot: The Ninth Amendment as Textual Justification for Judicial Enforcement of the Right to Privacy, 80 University of Chicago Law Review Dialogue 219 (2013).
Resolution VI: The Virginia Plan and Authority to Resolve Collective Action Problems Under Article I, Section 8, 87 Notre Dame Law Review 2123 (2013).
The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Part III: Andrew Johnson and the Constitutional Referendum of 1866, 101 The Georgetown Law Journal 1275 (2013).
Federalism, Individual Rights and Judicial Engagement, 19 George Mason Law Review 873 (2012).
The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Part I: Privileges and Immunities as an Antebellum Term of Art, 98 Georgetown Law Journal 1241 (2010).
The Origins of the Privileges or Immunities Clause, Part II: John Bingham and the Second Draft of the Fourteenth Amendment, 99 The Georgetown Law Journal 329 (2010).
Beyond Incorporation, 18 Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues 447 (2009).
Leaving the Chisholm Trail: The Eleventh Amendment and the Background Principle of Strict Construction, 50 William and Mary Law Review 1577 (2009).
A Textual-Historical Theory of the Ninth Amendment, 60 Stanford Law Review 895 (2008).
Of Inkblots and Originalism: Historical Ambiguity and the Case of the Ninth Amendment, 31 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 467 (2008).
On Federalism, Freedom, and the Founders' View of Retained Rights - A Reply to Randy Barnett, 60 Stanford Law Review 969 (2008).
The Inescapable Federalism of the Ninth Amendment, 93 Iowa Law Review 801 (2008).
The Original Meaning of an Omission: The Tenth Amendment, Popular Sovereignty, and Expressly Delegated Power, 83 Notre Dame Law Review 101 (2008).
Three Myths of the Ninth Amendment, 56 Drake Law Review 101 (2008).
Minority Report: John Marshall and the Defense of the Alien and Sedition Acts, 68 Ohio State Law Journal 435 (with Alicia Harrison) (2007).
Originalism, Popular Sovereignty, and Reverse Stare Decisis, 93 Virginia Law Review 1437 (2007).
James Madison's Celebrated Report of 1800: The Transformation of the Tenth Amendment, 74 George Washington Law Review 165 (2006).
Tucker's Rule: St. George Tucker and the Limited Construction of Federal Power, 47 William and Mary Law Review 1343 (2006).
The Lost Jurisprudence of the Ninth Amendment, 83 Texas Law Review 597 (2005).
The Lost Original Meaning of the Ninth Amendment, 83 Texas Law Review 331 (2004).
The Constitutional Convention of 1937: The Original Meaning of the New Jurisprudential Deal, 70 Fordham Law Review 459 (2001).
Two Movements of a Constitutional Symphony: Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill of Rights, 33 University of Richmond Law Review 485 (1999).
Power and the Subject of Religion, 59 Ohio State Law Journal 1069 (1998).
The Status of Constitutional Religious Liberty at the End of the Millenium, 32 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1 (1998).
Foreword: Voluntary Restraint and the Wormhole Effect, 29 Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review 1401 (1996).
The Second Adoption of the Establishment Clause: The Rise of the Nonestablishment Principle, 27 Arizona State Law Journal 1085 (1995) (cited by United States Supreme Court in Greece v. Galloway, 2014; excerpts 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 American Journal of Legal History 197 (1994).
Second Adoption of the Free Exercise Clause: Religious Exemptions under the Fourteenth Amendment, 88 Northwestern University Law Review 1106 (1994).
Book ChaptersThe Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment's Citizenship Clause, in Citizenship and Civic Leadership in America (Arizona State University, School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership) (2021).
The Ninth Amendment, in The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (2008).
Unenumerated Rights, in The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (2008).
Five Models of Church Autonomy: An Historical Look at Religious Liberty Under the United States Constitution, in Church Autonomy: A Comparative Survey (Peter Lang Publishers) (2001).
Government Aid to Religion, in 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).
School Choice, in Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, Supplement II (1999).
Book ReviewsGeorge Washington's Constitution, The New Rambler Review (2016).
Originalism as Jujitsu, 25 Const. Comment 521 (2009).
Separating Church and State: Roger Williams and Religious Liberty, Journal of Law and Religion (2001).
Review - Civilizing Religion: Perry's Religion in Politics, 65 The George Washington Law Review 1100 (1997).
TextbooksThe American First Amendment in the Twenty-First Century: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press) (with William Van Alstyne) (2014).
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