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Molly Brady

@maureenebrady.com
6K followers 385 following 1.4K posts

Professor @ Harvard Law writing on property institutions, land use, private law, and eminent domain. Section 3 for life. Always half-joking. (AKA Maureen.)

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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 29/08/2026
The annual teaching nightmare is here - and this time, it’s that this guy from Toy Story was in my Property class but we had run out of seats
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 28/08/2026
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 12/08/2026
Today in local government self-conception
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 09/08/2026
Meanwhile, the quiet part out loud in the comments
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 09/08/2026
New fronts in NIMBYism (from my former town of Arlington MA): people using AI to render upzonings!! Naturally this one depicts (a) a building that would violate multiple other legal provisions (b) on the day of the winter solstice (c) in snow “because the shadow will prevent the ice from melting”
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 27/07/2026
Out: notable endorsements In: wife-forward campaigns Never change, RI
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 03/06/2026
If one of you could throw me a cite to break the curse, I'd appreciate it
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 29/05/2026
*University governance debate roils* Meanwhile me on graduation day, in my administrative job:
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 12/05/2026
Time to retire, really can’t go up from here
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 10/05/2026
Regrettably accurate
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 30/03/2026
When did you know your research idea was in trouble
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 01/03/2026
Was this made specifically for me? Can the rest of you see this or is this the end
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 09/02/2026
Hotel NIMBY lady is back, this time with facts—from a study of TripAdvisor reviews in Atlanta and New Orleans, superb comps for my MA suburb. Up next, I’ll be studying the rise of vampire-human relationships using Goodreads
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 04/02/2026
I’d really like to meet the legend responsible for putting together the Harvard Gazette subject lines every morning
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 19/01/2026
In 2016, I wrote this mission statement at a seminar for new faculty at UVA. As true today as it was then! (And still on my bulletin board.)
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 19/01/2026
Tomorrow, the Supreme Court will hear a big gun rights case - Wolford v. Lopez. I've posted some thoughts. Given the property dynamics here, I'm not sure balancing can be avoided in reconciling the serious level-of-generality problems the history poses. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
Property v. Guns: The Level-of-Generality Problem in Wolford

Wolford v. Lopez presents the Supreme Court with a novel question: may states require property owners to affirmatively consent before armed persons enter private property that is held open to the public? Hawaii enacted such a default rule after New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen instructed courts to assess modern gun regulations by analogy to historical restrictions that are “relevantly similar” in “how and why” they burden the right to armed self-defense. In Wolford, the parties have turned to colonial-era hunting statutes limiting armed entry onto private land, but they disagree fundamentally about what those laws represent.

This Essay shows how Wolford crystallizes the level-of-generality problem embedded in Bruen’s historical framework. Outcomes often turn on the frame courts choose for “the relevant tradition”: defined too narrowly, no analogue fits; defined too broadly, almost anything does. Wolford poses that problem on both “why” and “how.” On “why,” the parties and lower courts dispute whether Founding-era hunting laws targeted “poaching” alone or broader concerns about armed trespass. On “how,” they dispute whether bans tied to “enclosed” or “improved” land map onto the modern category of “private property open to the public.”

Reexamining the record through property history clarifies what the hunting laws can—and cannot—do in the analogical analysis. Even an “anti-poaching” frame does not resolve whether the laws addressed theft of game or a broader bundle of concerns including trespass, property damage, and violence associated with armed strangers. And “enclosure” and “improvement” functioned as publicly legible property signals—proxies for claim and notice—rather than precursors to contemporary zoning-era distinctions between residential and commercial space. The Essay closes by arguing that ... courts should be transparent about the level-of-generality choices ...
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 21/12/2025
Mom’s Arrest for Taking Crayons (2025). Marker on paper.
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 21/11/2025
This might be a new one, which in zoning land is saying something
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 27/10/2025
What I don't need help with: generic, cringe responses to emails What I do need help with:
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 21/10/2025
Should I tell this “swiftie” what No Body No Crime is about or
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 10/09/2025
I’m sorry is this a love song about the SUBURBS
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 13/08/2025
Are all three year olds drawing maps at school or is this an early sign of love for property
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 13/07/2025
This guy has a point
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 05/05/2025
Conan O’Brien’s acceptance speech for the Mark Twain Prize, now on Netflix, is a really wonderful comment on Twain, comedy, the moment. www.vulture.com/article/cona...
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 16/04/2025
Ok fair this one might be on me
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 05/02/2025
Call for fellowship applications: Harvard’s Private Law Postdoc. More on the center here: plproject.law.harvard.edu please share with your students/networks!
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 11/01/2025
Now seems like an opportune time to admit that my gg-grandfather attempted to invade Canada in 1866. He was ultimately deported to Ireland, snuck back to New Jersey, and had 12 American kids
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 30/12/2024
It’s got contracts angles too! (Free campers?)
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 22/12/2024
Adulthood is learning why Dolly is on the island of misfit toys
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 20/12/2024
Happy holidays!
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 30/11/2024
Pilgrimage to the local aesthetic nuisance
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 22/11/2024
I'm not sure why, but this headline is cracking me up, must be time for weekend
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 29/10/2024
Reason #10347 why § 3 is the greatest section (my birthday cake). ❤️
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 25/10/2024
Early reviews are glowing, trust me that you don't want to miss out
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 21/10/2024
9 years ago today, I did my last AALS first-round interview, and my then-roommate captured this accurate memorialization of the time
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 17/10/2024
Ok guys I found it thesomervillenewsweekly.blog/wp-con… @ProfessorGriggs @MollyRose_Good
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 24/09/2024
Land use nerds gonna land use nerd in their free time. Excited to be on this panel tonight!
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 05/09/2024
Classify the following estate and future interests
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 29/08/2024
The names are learned, the semester is nigh
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 26/08/2024
Totally normal that my inbox behavior caused Apple to generate this email shortcut, nothing to see here
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 25/08/2024
Only the true Edwards v. Sims / ad coelum stans will get this
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 02/08/2024
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 02/08/2024
My great (nonscholarly) idea of the summer: my bulletin boards (where I put nice notes from students) were getting full, so I cleared them and turned them into a book! ♥️
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 24/07/2024
Unbelievable drive-by burn in this brief
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 12/06/2024
Incredible moments in prank calls from other law professors
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 06/06/2024
Extremely drafty draft: Covenants and the Contract Clause! papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abs… A couple recent decisions suggest that housing legislation that purports to alter deed restrictions - i.e., promises in homeowners' associations - creates a...
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 30/05/2024
Nothing to see here, just how a normal professor crosses the stage (as dancing section mascot) hls.harvard.edu/today/gallery-scene…
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 30/05/2024
No interest in weighing in on the flag contretemps but this is FOR SURE going into my joint tenancy slides
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 27/05/2024
one of the greatest copy/paste errors in medical form history
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Molly Brady @maureenebrady.com · 30/04/2024
Once a year, I think of the time a prominent law professor told our class "the declaratory judgment action was invented in my office"
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