Jul 3, 2026 Nora Freeman Engstrom & Aviv CaspiLegal Profession
In Access to Justice in the Age of AI: Evidence from U.S. Federal Courts, Anand V. Shah and Joshua Y. Levy, document what may be a tectonic shift in the civil justice system. According to Shah and Levy, Generative AI is lowering the barriers to filing suit—and, as a result, more self-represented litigants are initiating claims.
Analyzing 46 million docket entries, the authors uncover a surge in non-prisoner pro se filings. Federal pro se filings have risen in percentage terms—from a nearly 20-year steady state of roughly 11%, up to nearly 17% in fiscal year 2025. And, they have also jumped on a numbers-basis. Self-represented individuals initiated just 23,000 federal cases in 2022, and nearly twice that—41,000—in 2025. Continue reading "Opening the Courthouse Door—or Just Lowering the Threshold?"
Jul 2, 2026 Gregory M. SteinProperty
Utilities must find quick ways to meet a sudden surge in the need for electricity after years of flat or declining demand. Many utilities are currently racing to meet huge increases in electrical demand by constructing new plants, refurbishing old ones, or building nuclear facilities, while also upgrading local grids.
A new report from Energy Innovation, a non-partisan think tank focusing on energy and climate, authored by Eric G. Gimon, offers creative alternatives to this approach, which he refers to as the “firm fixation.” This term reflects the common approach of building new plants to meet the demands of individual data centers, rather than adopting a more modular approach.
The sudden need for additional electricity, most notably for data centers, has enormous legal implications, particularly for land use and environmental law. Legal policy makers, however, do not necessarily have the technical backgrounds required to assess these questions.
Mr. Gimon’s report bridges that gap, addressing technical issues in a way that is approachable to lawyers and others. It will allow lawyers to make policy decisions based on a clearer understanding of the engineering issues involved. Continue reading "Can Increased Demand for Electricity Be Met Without Building New Gas, Coal, or Nuclear Plants?"
Jul 1, 2026 Allison Brownell TirresLegal History
The fact that Black Americans played a pivotal role in the formation and adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments would not come as a surprise to historians of the Reconstruction period working today. Scholars ranging from W.E.B. DuBois to Eric Foner to Kate Masur, and many in between, have painted a rich picture of the activism and engagement of enslaved and formerly enslaved persons and free Blacks, who participated directly in the meaning-making of the Second Founding.
Unfortunately, this remarkable history goes largely unacknowledged by contemporary legal scholars and jurists, including some of those on the Supreme Court. It is this gap between historical reality and jurisprudential attention that David H. Gans seeks to close in his forthcoming article Forgotten Framers: Black Conventions and the Second Founding. Continue reading "Furthering Inclusive Constitutionalism"
