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.
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 (1995).
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).
The Second Adoption of the Establishment Clause: The Rise of the Nonestablishment Principle, 27 Arizona State Law Journal 1085 (1994) (cited by United States Supreme Court in Greece v. Galloway, 2014; excerpts reprinted in The Establishment Clause: An Anthology, Alan Brownstein ed., Prometheus, 2007).
The Reconstruction Amendments: Essential Documents (two volumes) (University of Chicago Press) (2019).
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).
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).
George 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).
The American First Amendment in the Twenty-First Century: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press) (with William Van Alstyne et al.) (2014).
