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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

I just posted @ssrn.bsky.social: Is Bivens Dead?, 61 Ga. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2027), papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers..... I look at every decision nationally that cites Bivens between June 2022 and June 2025 (4,808 in total) to see how courts are deciding Bivens actions after Egbert v. Boule. 1/10

papers.ssrn.com

Is Bivens Dead?

For much of its fifty-year existence, Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics has served as a tenuous counterpart to Section 1983, pro

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 05/12/2025

New to @ssrn.bsky.social, I just posted the Forgotten Fundamental Right to Free Movement, 119 Nw. U. L. Rev. 811 (2025). In this, I argue that free movement -- intrastate, interstate, and international -- is a fundamental constitutional right. 1/7 papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.com

The Forgotten Fundamental Right to Free Movement

There is a powerful fundamental right hiding in plain sight: the fundamental right to free movement. This right goes beyond the consistently acknowledged—though

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

I graduated from Allegany, a public HS in rural Appalachia. Discussions of school choice (see Drummond) don't give enough credence to the fact that most parents have little effective choice. The practical result of publicly funding religious schools will be to force that education on many students.

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Travel rights (which are reasonably robust, if regularly overlooked) can provide a bulwark against these sorts of anti-travel provisions. I wrote about this in Travel Rights in a Culture War, 101 Tex. L. Rev. O. 21 (2022), texaslawreview.org/travel-right.... But litigants need to assert them!

texaslawreview.org

Travel Rights in a Culture War | Texas Law Review

[T]he majority’s ruling today invites a host of questions about interstate conflicts[, including:] . . . Can a State bar women from traveling to another State to obtain an abortion? . . . The Constitu...

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

I think this is a (grim) illustration of what Alex Yelderman @alexyelderman.bsky.social writes about in Danger as Deterrent, 65 B.C. L. Rev. 113 (2024). bclawreview.bc.edu/articles/311....

bclawreview.bc.edu

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Before now, law students largely struggled to differentiate one big law firm from another. One effect of Trump's individualized targeting of these places, and the various reactions that it's provoked, is to reveal meaningful differences that might not have been obvious to students before.

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

Here's a possibly good $$ cut, which could help with police accountability. One effect of external funding for the police is to smooth the local costs of police misconduct liability, diminishing local pressures to reform. I write about this in Funding the Police, 84 Ohio State L. J. 717 (2023).

moritzlaw.osu.edu

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

It's not every day that you get to stop an execution. Congratulations to my co-counsel (in a different case) and law school classmate, Amy Knight, on the Glossip decision! nondoc.com/2025/02/25/s...

nondoc.com

SCOTUS throws out Glossip conviction, prosecutors to decide on new trial

The U.S. Supreme Court vacated the conviction of Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip on Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025.

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 03/01/2025

Fascinating take on Mexico politics/policy and AMLO specifically.

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Noah Smith-Drelich @nsmithdrelich.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Interesting twist on the Kristi Noem nomination: she's been barred from stepping foot on each of the reservations located within South Dakota (all 9). DHS is relatively new, but has there ever been a Secretary of Homeland Security who can't legally visit all of the parts of the 'homeland'?

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