Dan Epps

Howard and Caroline Cayne Distinguished Professor of Law, @WUSTL. Con law 📜, crim law/pro 👮, SCOTUSology 🏛. Cohost 🎤@DividedArgument.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

NEW ARTICLE on @SSRN: "The Practice of Executive Constitutionalism," by me and @conorjclarke (forthcoming in @VirginiaLawRev). Check it out! (Link in next tweet to avoid being crushed by the @X algorithm).

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@derektmuller @OrinKerr It presupposes that there will be a Chief Justice. I’m not sure that creates a constitutional obligation on Congress and the president to actually put someone in office.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ARKloster Hard copies that are then archived numerous places digitally. I can still get law review articles published in the 1890s on JSTOR, Hein, other venues...

[Dan Epps @danepps]

This seems entirely backwards to me. As it becomes clear that sites like SSRN aren't reliable long term repositories, journals—where articles have remained discoverable for over a century—become only more useful. Ad hoc hosting on law school websites can quickly become vaporware.

[Andrew Kloster @ARKloster]

@danepps @ANNVYSHINSKY @SSRN @brianlfrye This is mass economics at work. We are headed to Elsevier/Lexis $$$ monopoly on the one hand, or pure pdf posting on X, but either way the prestige of law journals and student sham control are going to take a hit.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@OrinKerr Isn’t it also clear that Congress and the president could just decline to nominate and confirm any justices, leaving a permanently vacant court?

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ANNVYSHINSKY @SSRN @brianlfrye I doubt that a peer review journal would be OK with a piece that already has an irrevocable license on it that would let any other journal publish it as well without permission

[Dan Epps @danepps]

FWIW, I’m hearing there may be a lot of confusion about what’s actually happening. I’ve asked my schools library to reach out to @SSRN for clarification.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

Wow. @SSRN is over. This is quite unfortunate, and infuriating. Law profs, we need a replacement.

https://t.co/x55YiLeQ1k

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ANNVYSHINSKY @SSRN @brianlfrye But I think the problem is the journals wouldn’t be. You typically have to give them at least a one-year exclusive.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ANNVYSHINSKY @SSRN I wouldn’t and couldn’t if I had to handover that license

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@OrinKerr @SSRN Hmm….this doesn’t address the licensing issue which is also a dealbreaker.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

Wow. @SSRN is over. This is quite unfortunate, and infuriating. Law profs, we need a replacement.

https://t.co/x55YiLeQ1k

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@mollyxbrady @danielledonfro and I have one in the works but probably won't see print for at least a year!

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@TradVat2 Yes, I would definitely never characterize that as a holding in a brief.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ASFleischman @Greg651 Unavailability is also required under the Confrontation Clause itself and I don’t know if that perfectly tracks FRE (Court hasn’t clearly told us).

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ProfArbel I think there are two questions here. One is “should student be forced to do everything without AI” and the second is “should they have to do *some* things without AI.”

For advanced math, everybody uses calculators, but there’s still value in making kids learn long division.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

I'm sympathetic to the concerns underlying these rules, but I worry they're so broad and unrealistic that they're unlikely to be taken seriously by students.

It bars using "AI" to check grammar; I think that would cover MS Word's grammar check function, which is AI-trained.

[Chris Hoofnagle @hoofnagle]

Berkeley law has introduced a new, much stricter AI policy
https://t.co/wlNs2cUrKz

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ProfArbel Having taught LRW for three years, I think that’s a wildly simplistic understanding of its goals. A lot of it is about learning how to figure out the answer to legal questions and how to think them through logically.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ProfArbel Whether it can be taught or not, one can't ever become a good writer without getting practice doing it. (not sure what you mean by the problem is solved).

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ProfArbel I'm specifically sympathetic to the idea that students should develop the skill of writing, even if AI will ultimately play a tremendous role in the generation of their legal work product. If students are just turning in fully AI-written papers, I'm not sure what the point is.

[Dan Epps @danepps]

@ffs2022 Classic

[Dan Epps @danepps]

I am continually surprised by how poor Westlaw's interface is and how little it has improved over time. When I type "Cox" into the search bar, the suggestion should be a case w/ that name, not "Litigation Analytics" about how often various judges named Cox grant summary judgment.