Howard M. Wasserman

Howard M. Wasserman joined the College of Law faculty in 2003. Professor Wasserman teaches civil procedure, evidence, federal courts, civil rights, and First Amendment; he writes about the freedom of speech, the role of procedure and jurisdiction in public-law and civil-rights litigation, and recently on baseball’s Infield Fly Rule. He blogs at PrawfsBlawg, is the Section Editor for the Courts Law Section of JOTWELL, and is a Contributor at SCOTUSBlog. Professor Wasserman graduated magna cum laude from Northwestern University School of Law, where he was an associate articles editor of the Law Review and was named to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, he clerked for Chief Judge James T. Giles of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Judge Jane R. Roth of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He has been a visiting professor at Saint Louis University School of Law and Florida State University College of Law. Professor Wasserman is a loyal Chicago Cubs fan.

Books:

• Understanding Civil Rights Litigation (Carolina Academic Press) (3d ed. forthcoming 2023) (2d ed. 2018) (1st ed. 2013 Lexis Nexis)
• Painting Constitutional Law: Xavier Cortada’s Images of Constitutional Rights(M.C. Mirow & Howard M. Wasserman eds., Brill 2021)
• Infield Fly Rule is in Effect: The History and Strategy of Baseball’s Most (In)Famous Rule (McFarland Press 2019)

Articles and Chapters:

• Judicial Process as a Check on “Vigilante Federalism”, ___ Cornell L. Rev. Online ___ (forthcoming 2023) (with Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes)
• Solving the Procedural Puzzles of the Texas Heartbeat Act and its Imitators: New York Times v. Sullivan as Historical Analogue, 60 Hous L. Rev. 93 (2022) (with Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes)
• Solving the Procedural Puzzles of the Texas Heartbeat Act and its Imitators: The Potential for Defensive Litigation, 75 SMU L. Rev. 187 (2022) (with Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes)
• Solving the Procedural Puzzles of the Texas Heartbeat Act and its Imitators: The Limits and Opportunities of Offensive Litigation, 71 Am. L. Rev. 1029 (2022) (with Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes)
• Civil Procedure in the Chief Justice’s Year-End Report on the Federal Judiciary, 51 Stetson L. Rev. 317 (2022)
• Zombie Laws, 25 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1047 (2022)
• A Court with No Names: Anonymity and Celebrity on the Kardashian Court, 106 Iowa L. Rev. Online 47 (2021)
• Congress and Universal Injunctions, 43 Cardozo L. Rev. De Novo 187 (2021)
• Academic Feeder Judges, 105 Judicature 7 (2021)
• Sport and Expression, Sport as Expression, 14 FIU L. Rev. 733 (2021)
• The Forum-Defendant Rule, the Mischief Rule, and Snap Removal, 62 & Mary L. Rev. Online 51 (2021)
• “May It Please the Court”: Of Florida, By Florida, For Florida, in Painting Constitutional Law: Xavier Cortada’s Images of Constitutional Rights (M.C. Mirow & Howard M. Wasserman eds., Brill 2021)
• Testing the Koufax Curse: How 18 Jewish Pitchers, 18 Jewish Hitters, and Rod Carew Performed on Yom Kippur, 49 Baseball Rsch. J. 71 (2020)
• Against Stealing First Base, 27 NINE: Baseball Hist. & Culture 108 (2020)
• Concepts Not Nomenclature: Universal Injunctions, Declaratory Judgments, Opinions, and Precedent, 91 Colo. L. Rev. 999 (2020)
• Precedent, Non-Universal Injunctions, and Judicial Departmentalism: A Model of Constitutional Litigation, 23 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 1077 (2020)

SCOTUSBlog Contributions:

• Argument recap: Centaurs, Jean Valjean, and a proposed three-sentence ruling on the meaning of favorable termination, SCOTUSBlog, Oct. 13, 2021
• Argument preview: Favorable termination and indications of innocence in Section 1983 malicious prosecution claims, SCOTUSBlog, Oct. 10, 2021
• Opinion analysis: Selling cars in a forum state “relates to” a claim involving a car sold elsewhere, SCOTUSBlog, Mar. 26, 2021
• Argument analysis: In Holocaust survivors’ lawsuits, justices probe history and limits of comity abstention, SCOTUSBlog, Dec. 9, 2020
• Case preview: Foreign sovereign immunity, comity, and the Holocaust, SCOTUSBlog, Dec. 6, 2020
• Argument analysis: Due process, causation and stopping points for a 1945 doctrine in a 2020 world, SCOTUSBlog, Oct. 9, 2020
• Case preview: Defining “relatedness” in personal jurisdiction, SCOTUSBlog, Oct. 5, 2020
• Opinion analysis: Congress cannot subject states to suit for pirating and plundering copyrighted material, SCOTUSBlog, Mar. 23, 2020
• Argument recap: Justices pillage state arguments for sovereign immunity from copyright infringement, SCOTUSBlog, Nov. 6, 2019
• Aaarrrgument preview: Copyright and sovereign immunity in Davy Jones’ locker, SCOTUSBlog, Oct. 29, 2019
• Opinion analysis: Fabricated-evidence claims accrue only on favorable termination of prosecution, SCOTUSBlog, June 20, 2019
• Opinion analysis: The First Amendment, probable cause, and questions left unanswered, SCOTUSBlog, May 28, 2019
• Argument analysis: Spinning heads and swimming constitutional rights in debates over an accrual rule, SCOTUSBlog, Apr. 17, 2019
• Argument preview: Searching for an accrual rule when the government fabricates evidence in a criminal proceeding, SCOTUSBlog, Apr. 10, 2019

Other Publications:

• How at least one Jewish baseball player has beaten the Koufax jinx and the Kol Nidre curse, The Forward, Oct. 14, 2022
• Catching and Killing It in Federal Court, JOTWELL, July 2022 (review essay)
• These Jews were among baseball’s all-time greats—but do they count as “Jewish baseball players?”, The Forward, June 1, 2022
• Why this will be the most Jewish World Series in baseball history, The Forward, 25, 2021
• Navigating the Procedure of Texas’ Fetal Heartbeat Act, com, Oct. 18, 2021 (with Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes)
• Texas’ fetal-heartbeat law creates a procedural morass, but it doesn’t preclude judicial review, Daily J., Sept. 14, 2021 (with Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes)
• Why playing baseball on Yom Kippur Matters, The Forward, Aug. 2021
• The Paths to Comprehensive Entity Liability in Constitutional Litigation, JOTWELL, June 23, 2021 (review essay)
• Are Jews who play baseball on the High Holidays really cursed? We ran the stats, The Forward, Sept. 12, 2020
• Mischief and Snap Removal, JOTWELL, June 2020 (review essay)

Latest News

• Prof. Wasserman in SCOTUSBlog on Supreme Court decision in Health & Hosp. Corp. v. Talevski
• College of Law hosts celebration of Cortada’s “May It Please the Court”
• Prof. Wasserman on new sports podcast
• Prof. Wasserman on NPR’s All Things Considered
• Prof. Wasserman in SCOTUSBlog
• Prof. Wasserman in The Forward
• Prof. Wasserman on Texas Abortion Law
• Prof. Wasserman in SCOTUSBlog on Supreme Court’s decision in Thompson v. Clark
• Prof. Wasserman on National Public Radio
• Prof. Wasserman in The Forward