Academic Appointments

Brown University

• Professor of Political Science, 2012-present;
• Professor, by courtesy, of Philosophy, 2012-present;
• Associate Professor (with tenure) of Political Science, 2007-2012
• Associate Professor, by courtesy, of Philosophy, 2007- 2012;
• Assistant Professor of Political Science, 2002-2007;
• Assistant Professor, by courtesy, of Philosophy, 2005-2007

Fordham Law School, Visiting Professor of Law, 2017-present

Fordham Law School, Visiting Professor of Law, Fall 2013

Princeton University

• Rockefeller Faculty Fellow, Center for Human Values, 2010-2011
• Graduate Prize Fellow, Center for Human Values, 2000-2001
• Preceptor, 2000-2001

Harvard Law School, Visiting Associate Professor of Law, Winter Term, 2009

Harvard University, Faculty Fellow, Safra Family Foundation Center for Ethics, 2006-2007

Education

Princeton University, M.A. 2000 (distinction), Ph.D. 2002
Department of Politics and Program in Political Philosophy

• Dissertation: “Rights and Reciprocity: A Democratic Theory of Privacy, Property and Capital Punishment”
• Committee: Amy Gutmann (Chair), George Kateb, Stephen Macedo
• Nominated for the Leo Strauss Prize in Political Philosophy

Stanford Law School, J.D. 2005

University of Cambridge, M.Phil. 1996
Program in Political Thought and Intellectual History

Pomona College, B.A. 1995
Politics and Philosophy

Books

The Oath and the Office (New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2018).

When The State Speaks, What Should it Say? How Democracies Can Protect Expression and Promote Equality (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2012).

Governmental Powers: Cases and Readings (New York, NY: Aspen Publishers, 2014).

Civil Rights and Liberties: Cases and Readings (New York, NY: Aspen Publishers, 2013).

Constitutional Law and American Democracy: Cases and Readings (New York, NY: Aspen Publishers, 2011).

Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2007).

Punishment, Property, and Justice: Philosophical Foundations of the Welfare and Death Penalty Controversies (Burlington, VT: Ashgate/Dartmouth Press, 2001).

Articles

“Challenging Hate, Protecting Rights,” Jurisprudence, (2017).

“Equality as a Basis for Religious Toleration: A Response to Leiter,” Criminal Law and Philosophy, (2016).

"Sovereign and State: A Democratic Theory of Sovereign Immunity," Texas Law Review, (2015).

"Democratic Persuasion and Free Speech," Brooklyn Law Review, (2014).

“Viewpoint Neutrality, Free Speech, and the Reasons for Rights,” Northwestern Law Review, (2013).

“Public Justification and the Right to Private Property: Welfare Rights as Compensation for Exclusion,” Law and Ethics of Human Rights, (2012).

“A Substantive Conception of the Rule of Law,” Nomos XLX: The Rule of Law, (2011).

“Judicial Review and Democratic Authority: Absolute v. Balancing Conceptions,” Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (part of symposium on T. Christiano’s The Constitution of Authority), (August 2011): 1-9.

“Defending the Value Theory of Democracy: A Response to Six Critics,” Representation (part of symposium on my book Democratic Rights), Vol. 47, No. 1 (April 2011): 73-83.

“When the State Speaks, What Should It Say? The Dilemmas of Free Speech and Democratic Persuasion” Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 6, No. 2 (December 2010): 1005-1019.

“A Transformative Theory of Religious Freedom: State Persuasion and the Reasons for Rights,” Political Theory, Vol. 38, No. 2 (April 2010): 187-213.

Subject of “Critical Exchange” Political Theory, Vol. 39, No. 6 (December 2011): 777-792, which includes my response, “Non-Profit Status and Religious Freedom.”

“The Global Reach of Democratic Ideals: Universal Implications of Procedure-Independent Values,” The Good Society, (part of symposium on Democratic Theory) Vol. 18, No. 2 (December 2009): 35-40.

“The Rights of the Guilty: Punishment and Political Legitimacy,” Political Theory, Vol. 35, No. 2 (April 2007): 175-199.

Subject of “Critical Exchange,” in Political Theory, Vol. 35, No. 6 (December 2007): 806-815, which includes my response, “Unreasonable Disagreement.”

“The Politics of the Personal: A Liberal Approach,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 101, No. 1 (February 2007): 19-31.

“The Value Theory of Democracy,” Politics, Philosophy, and Economics, Vol. 5, No. 3 (October 2006): 259-278.

“Popular Constitutionalism and the Case for Judicial Review” (review essay), Political Theory Vol. 34, No. 4 (August 2006): 516-521.

“Balancing Procedures and Outcomes Within Democratic Theory: Core Values and Judicial Review,” Political Studies Vol. 53, No. 2 (June 2005): 423-441.

“Dignity, Citizenship, and Capital Punishment: The Right of Life Reformulated,” Studies in Law, Politics and Society Vol. 25 (2002): 119-132.

“From Liberalism to the End of Juridical Language: An Examination of Marx’s Early Jurisprudence,” Studies in Law, Politics and SocietyVol. 18 (1998): 173-217.

Book Chapters

“Public Justification and the Right to Private Property: Welfare Rights as Compensation for Exclusion,” in O’Neill and Williamson, Property Owning Democracy: Rawls and Beyond, (Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming 2012).

“Punishment within the Social Contract.” in Sarat and Umphry, Law as Punishment/Law as Regulation, (Stanford University Press, 2011).

Book Reviews

Review of T. Christiano, The Constitution of Equality: Democratic Authority and Its Limits (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Journal of Politics, Vol. 71 (2009): 1593-1594. Review appears as part of “Critical Exchange.”

Review of M. Schwartzberg, Democracy and Legal Change, (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 6 (2008): 361-365. Review appears as part of “Critical Dialogue.”

Review of Civil Society and Government (Ethicon Series in Comparative Political Theory), Nancy L. Rosenblum and Robert C. Post, eds. Ethics Vol. 114, No. 2 (January 2004), 374-376

Writings for Popular Press (selected)

"Yes, It's Possible to Indict a Sitting President. Here's Why," Washington Post, 2018

"Gorsuch, Abortion, and the Concept of Personhood," New York Times, 2018

"Local and State Government Can Protect the Constitution," Time Magazine, 2016

"Why Prisoners Deserve the Right to Vote," POLITICO Magazine, 2016

"A License to Say Anything," (with Nelson Tebbe), New York Times, 2015

"Born Free, But Not Indifferent," Foreign Policy, 2012

Invited Lectures, Papers, and Responses (selected)

"Revisiting Membership and Morals," Harvard University, 2016.

"Public Reason and the Religion Clauses," Yale University, 2016.

"Epistemic Democracy and the Value Theory of Democracy," Princeton University, 2014.

"Democratic Persuasion and the Freedom of Speech," University of Chicago Law School, 2014.

"When the State Speaks, What Should it Say?" Harvard University, 2013.

“Viewpoint Neutrality, Free Speech, and the Reasons for Rights,” Northwestern Law School, March 2012.

“Value Democracy and the Freedom of Expression: Protecting Rights and Promoting Free and Equal Citizenship,” University of Toronto, November 2011.

“Value Democracy and the Freedom of Expression: Protecting Rights and Promoting Free and Equal Citizenship,” Yale University, October 2011.

“Against Neutralism in Free Exercise Jurisprudence: Faith Based Groups, Discrimination, and State Subsidy,” University of Alabama Law School, Symposium on “Matters of Faith,” October 2011.

“Value Democracy and the Freedom of Expression: Protecting Rights and Promoting Free and Equal Citizenship,” University of Sterling, Symposium on “Democracy and Rights,” September 2011.

“Value Democracy and the Freedom of Expression,” Center for Comparative Constitutional Law, Melbourne Law School, August 2011.

“Value Democracy and the Freedom of Expression,” Australian National University, August 2011.

“When the State Speaks, What Should it Say? Freedom of Expression and the Reasons for Rights,” The Leroy Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment, University of Colorado, April 2011.

“Public Justification and the Right to Private Property: Welfare Rights as Compensation for Exclusion,” Center for Law and Business, Symposium on “Reciprocity and Rights,” January 2011.

“Democratic Persuasion,” Princeton University, September 2010.

“Freedom of Expression and the Reasons for Rights,” Harvard University, April 2010.

“When the State Speaks, What Should it Say? Freedom of Expression and the Reasons for Rights,” Princeton University, October 2009.

“State Persuasion and the Reasons for Rights: A Transformative Theory of Religious Freedom,” Harvard Law School, May 2009.

“A Transformative Theory of Religious Freedom,” Columbia University, May 2009.

“A Transformative Theory of Religious Freedom,” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, February 2009.

“Beyond Rights,” University of Pennsylvania, December 2008.

“Punishment and the Social Contract,” Corliss Lamont Lectureship Series, Amherst College, October 2008.

“Beyond Rights: The Constitution’s Responses to Hate Speech,” Second Annual Brown University Constitution Day Lecture, Brown University, September 2006.

“The Supreme Court as a Model for Mass Deliberation,” Conference on Designing 21st Century Governance Mechanisms, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Pocantico Hills Conference Center, July 2006.

“Is the Family Beyond Justice? A Reply to Joshua Cohen,” Conference on the Work of Susan Okin, Stanford University, January 2005.

“Democratic Rights: The Substance of Self-Government,” and “Public Justification and the Right to Private Property,” Young Scholar Weekend, Cornell University, Center for Ethics and Public Life, May 2004.

“Democratic Rights,” Pomona College, Program in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, November 2003.

“Democracy and Individual Rights,” Stanford University, February 2003.

“Democracy and Individual Rights,” Massachusetts Institute of Technology, December 2002.

Awards and Honors

Rockefeller Faculty Fellowship, Center for Human Values, Princeton University, 2010-2011

Nominee, Barrett Hazeltine Award for Excellence in Teaching, Brown University, Spring 2008

Safra Foundation Center for Ethics Faculty Fellowship, Harvard University, 2006-2007

Brown University Humanities Center Inaugural Fellowship, Brown University, Spring 2006

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Junior Faculty Fellowship, American Council of Learned Societies, 2004-2005

Finalist, Barrett Hazeltine Award for Excellence in Teaching, Brown University, Spring 2004

Cornell University Young Scholar Award, Center for Ethics and Public Life, Cornell University, 2003-2004

Nomination, Leo Strauss Award in Political Theory, Princeton University, Fall 2002

University Fellowship, Princeton University, 1999-2000, 2001-2002

Graduate Prize Fellowship, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University, 2000-2001

Downing College Fellowship, Downing College, Cambridge University, 1995-1996

Beckner Prize for Excellence in Philosophy, Pomona College, May 1995

Phi Beta Kappa, Pomona College, May 1995

Courses Taught

Undergraduate: Constitutional Law; Civil Liberties; Ethics and Public Policy; Issues in Democratic Theory; Modern Political Thought

Graduate: Democratic Theory, Justice, and the Law; Liberalism and Its Critics: What is the Relationship between Democracy and Individual Rights?; The Political Theory of the American Constitution

Law School: First Amendment (University of Chicago Law School); Constitutional Law (Fordham Law School); Democratic Theory and the Law (Harvard Law School)

Ph.D. Research Supervision

McCalpin, Jermaine, “A Theory of Transitional Justice: The Case of South Africa,” placed at University of the West Indies (Lecturer)

Western, David, “Hearts of Light: The Role of Empathy in Negotiation,” placed at Grinnell College (Postdoctoral Fellow), now at Valparaiso University (Lecturer)

Phillips, John, “Natural Resources, Opportunity, and Global Justice,” placed at University of North Carolina (Visiting Professor), now at Austin Peay State University (Assistant Professor)

Banai, Hussein, “Democratic Contextualism,” (Committee Chair), placed at Occidental College (Assistant Professor), now at Indiana University (Assistant Professor)

Ly, Minh, “Global Deliberation,” (Committee Chair), placed at Princeton University (Postdoctoral Fellow), now at Stanford University (Lecturer)

McGravey, Kevin, "Public Rights: Public Freedom and the First Amendment," (Committee Chair), placed at Merrimack College (Assistant Professor)