Orin Kerr

NEW AT SSRN: With the geofence warrant case being argued at SCOTUS this spring, I'm pleased to be able to post Chapter 9 of "The Digital Fourth Amendment," on how courts should interpret Carpenter v. United States, the CSLI case—and how to apply it. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

I made a brief appearance in this NPR story, for those interested. npr.org/2026/03/18/nx-…

@MeganTStevenson @ben_golub Agreed, that would be helpful.

@ben_golub Might be worth describing a little bit more about what types of errors you're hoping to catch. Is this more of a quality of argument question? Incorrectly cited cases?

Refine is a tool that my team and I developed for world-class feedback on, well, any reasonably complicated document. We have a new product for law - if you're a lawyer and are willing to give our alpha a spin, please DM me! (and please RT if lawyers follow you - thanks!)

To add to this: My sense is that a lot of law schools have a tendency to look at things like the US News rankings and to say, "We know we are the best, but for some reason word is not getting out that we are the best." The problem is perceived as one of PR; for whatever reason, news about the school's being the best isn't getting out. If that's the view of a large part of the faculty, it's hard to take a Moneyball approach to hiring or to invest a lot in new faculty (assuming there are funds to do that, the lack of which is of course often the major barrier).

@ToddZywicki @ProfRobAnderson @georgemasonlaw Seems pretty much right. It’s surprisingly hard for faculties to look at themselves and conclude, “we aren’t as good as we could be and we need to get better.” Lake Wobegon thinking is all too common.

It is difficult to overstate what Texas A&M law has accomplished in just ten years. If this momentum can be continued, even in part and even for a short time, this school will tear apart the longstanding hierarchical order in the legal academy. That would be a good thing.

@derektmuller x.com/OrinKerr/statu…

TAMU has climbed, then pulled in extraordinary laterals who buy the vision. The question is, why aren't more schools capable of doing this. (Yes, money is a factor, but it is hardly the decisive one.)

There are just 10 levers a school can pull for USNWR purposes. The question as to why a few can pull those levers effectively, & most schools express shock each year at where they land among the rankings, is a true exercise in management capability.

Memo to Self. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

@nancyde20013555 @SketchesbyBoze Maybe not, but at least ALF was certainly high culture.

@OrinKerr @SketchesbyBoze The A Team and MTV were not exactly a cultural experience.

Growing up in the ‘90s, you could get a cultural education from watching classic films and brilliant kids’ TV. Today those have been replaced by illiterate livestreamers & conspiracy-addled tiktoks. They haven’t seen Casablanca; they haven’t heard of King Arthur. It’s bleak.

@drmtown Interesting, thanks!

@OrinKerr I use Claude often, and this has been true for me pretty much across the board (including with Opus 4.5 and 4.6, extended thinking on and off, etc.). I prefer Claude for some analytical tasks and Claude Code, but when it comes to research tasks I've found GPT Pro to be better

Some thoughts on using AI to translate and explain ancient legal documents. In particular, how do you know if what you're getting is accurate, and what uses might it have? reason.com/volokh/2026/03…

Andrew Hill, "Verne," from Smokestack (recorded December 1963), with Hill on piano, Richard Davis on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. youtube.com/watch?v=IWXFX-…

🧵 1/14: Just days after Paul Ehrlich (the man whose 1968 book “The Population Bomb” predicted billions would starve) passed away, it’s the perfect moment to celebrate the scientist who proved Ehrlich and other doomsayers spectacularly wrong. Meet Norman Borlaug, the Iowa farm boy who launched the Green Revolution and quite literally saved a billion lives. This is the ultimate story of human ingenuity triumphing over scarcity.

Supreme Court of Alabama interprets its state stop-and-identify statute: If a stopped person is asked their name and gives an unsatisfactory response, the officer can order the person to hand over a physical ID. publicportal-api.alappeals.gov/courts/68f021c… #N

Worth a read if you've never seen it: Frank Easterbrook, Ways of Criticizing the Court, 95 Harv. L. Rev. 802 (1982). chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewconten…

From the essay.

I am pleased to see that, 14 years after its publication, "A Theory of Law" continues to generate a body of responses and debate that advances the jurisprudential conversation. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…

@smmarotta Retweet his announcement while it’s hot!

I guess he must have come . . . . . . highly recommended.

@drmtown If I can ask, was there a particular version of Claude you were using?

@drmtown Interesting, thanks!

Big lateral hire for Texas A&M Law.

[Orin S. Kerr] How AI Tools Can Help With Legal History Research ift.tt/Dltf7Lq