Harvard Law Review

Federal Courts Articles

Habeas Class Actions

Can habeas corpus cases proceed as class actions? The Supreme Court has never squarely answered that question, even in cases where lower courts certified habeas classes. But the Trump Administration’s wholesale push to expel noncitizens has forced the question to the center of modern civil rights litigation.

Immigration Law Essay

Keys to the Kingdom: Immigration Control and the Accretion of Executive Power

In his campaign for the presidency in 2024, then-candidate Donald Trump focused particular attention on immigration policy. Differentiating his proposed approach from that of the Biden Administration, Trump promised that if he were elected, he would “close the border” to migrants entering without authorization.

Jennifer M. Chacón

Race and the Law Notes

SFFA and the Wrong of Race-Based Statistical Discrimination

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. (SFFA), the Supreme Court invalidated the race-based affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The SFFA majority held that the programs could not survive strict scrutiny: The universities’ interests in their affirmative action programs were not sufficiently compelling…

Civil Rights Litigation Notes

An Equitable Approach to Suing Municipalities

“Not being a State often places the District of Columbia at a disadvantage. In this case, however, it works to its benefit.” So began the court’s opinion in Garnett v. Zeilinger. In Garnett, several D.C. residents…

Administrative Law Notes

Presidential Speech and the Discrimination Paradox

The Supreme Court promises that government action is illegitimate if it “lack[s] any purpose other than a ‘bare . . . desire to harm a politically unpopular group.’” But increasingly, that promise is at risk in the context of actions…

Labor Law Notes

Redefining Organized Labor: How the Supreme Court Circumscribed the Role of Private Sector Unions in American Communities

Organized labor is in crisis. Despite recent polling showing higher levels of public support for unions than at any time since the 1960s, the current presidential administration has launched an unprecedented attack on organized labor. Commentators…

42 USC § 1983 Recent Case

Hunt v. Richmond Police Department

Justice Gorsuch, writing for the majority in Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson, made two bold immunity claims: that state court judges possess sovereign immunity and that the “traditional exception” to sovereign immunity recognized in Ex parte…

Education Recent Case

Defending Education v. Olentangy Local School District Board of Education

While it is well established that a finding of viewpoint discrimination suffices to hold government regulation of speech unconstitutional in nonschool contexts, the interaction between viewpoint discrimination and the regulation of student speech in schools remains…

Election Law Recent Case

Jersey City United
Against the New Ward Map v. Jersey City Ward Commission

The compactness requirement has become a rule without a ruler. To curb gerrymandering, many state and local laws require electoral districts to be compact. Yet courts — faced with uncertainty over how to measure compactness and what level…

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About the Harvard Law Review

Founded in 1887, the Harvard Law Review is a student-run journal of legal scholarship. The Review is independent from the Harvard Law School and a board of student editors selected through an anonymous annual writing competition make all editorial decisions. The print Review and its online companion, the Forum, are published monthly from November through June. The Review, the Forum, and online Blog welcome submissions throughout the year.

Forum

Federal Courts Essay

Vaccines, Religious Liberty, and the GVR As Doctrinal Signal

Zalman Rothschild

Torts Fellowship Essay

Treating Superbugs With Litigation: Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria From Animal Agriculture As a Public Nuisance

Naomi Jennings

Administrative Law Response

Institutional Design, Drug Policy, and the Limits of Abstraction

Response to Drug Scheduling as Institutional Design

Climate Change Essay

Who Decides How to Decarbonize? Environmental Justice and Democratic Decisionmaking in California Climate Regulations

Amelia Keyes

Federal Courts Essay

The U.S. Supreme Court and the “Inferior” Courts: Siblings or Distant Cousins?

Diane P. Wood

Prosecutor Essay

Principles Over the Principles: The Enduring Relevance of The Federal Prosecutor

Hagan Scotten

Prosecutor Essay

Robert Jackson’s The Federal Prosecutor Revisited

Michael R. Dreeben

Blog

Second Amendment Blog Essay

The Second Amendment’s Liberal Moment

May 27, 2026

Fabrice Guyot-Sionnest

Administrative Law Blog Essay

From Destruction to Construction: The Case for a New Congressional Review Act

May 20, 2026

Hannah Frater

Negotiation Blog Essay

Systemic Prioritization in Negotiation and the Law

April 22, 2026

Jasper D.C. Johnston

Employment Law Blog Essay

Intermediary Choice and the Structural Logic of Title VII’s But-For Test

April 7, 2026

Cindy X. Guo

Artificial Intelligence Blog Essay

United States v. Heppner

March 23, 2026

Elizabeth X. Guo

International Law Blog Essay

Discretion to Declare: The Notwithstanding Clause and the Democratic Function of the Canadian Courts

March 19, 2026

Monica Lange

Explore

Articles

Indian Law Articles

Indigenous Constitutionalism

W. Tanner Allread

Torts Articles

What is a Tort?

Ketan Ramakrishnan

Administrative Law Articles

Drug Scheduling as Institutional Design

Supreme Court Articles

Practical Consequences in Statutory Interpretation

Anita S. Krishnakumar

Essays

First Amendment Speech Essay

“Our Money or Your Life!” Higher Education and the First Amendment

Cass R. Sunstein

Article III Essay

Interim Orders, the Presidency, and Judicial Supremacy

Jack Goldsmith

More Essays

Book Reviews

Legal History Book Review

“Alas”

Evan D. Bernick

Constitutional Law Book Review

Blown Chances

Jonathan D. Glater

More Book Reviews

Tributes

In Memoriam Tribute

In Memoriam: Justice David H. Souter

In Memoriam Tribute

In Memoriam: Professor Charles Fried

More Tributes

Recently Cited

The student pieces featured below have been recently cited in judicial opinions and legal scholarship.

Habeas Corpus Leading Case