Ben Eidelson

🧵My new column for @justiaverdict.bsky.social praises the US Civil Rights Comm'n report on campus antisemitism for calling out illegal & unhelpful Trump admin actions. I also rebut a claim that the Comm'n should have endorsed a definition of antisemitism, following up on my earlier testimony. /1

This brief for @beidelson.bsky.social & @hellmandeborah.bsky.social is excellent--it explains, better than Harvard's own brief does, why the vast majority of incidents alleged in the DOJ suit did not violate Title VI. [1]

You can now listen to nearly all opinions in Case Viewer, with a text-to-speech algorithm tuned for legal content (notice how it compresses the U.S. cite). And it will keep playing from the background or lock screen with navigable sections, like a podcast. (Watch video with sound on.) caseviewer.app

It's really that simple: the federal government want "Jewish" to be defined as holding specific policy attitudes

Case Viewer (@caseviewerapp.bsky.social) has a refreshed website and a bunch of post-semester refinements & enhancements. Here's how a couple of yesterday's SCOTUS opinions render on Mac and iPhone. Check it out at www.caseviewer.app! And if you need a discount code for full version, let me know.

The Trump administration's new Title VI complaint against Harvard is pervasively disingenuous in its factual allegations and exceedingly weak on the law. Fortunately the district court & court of appeals will be guided by the MIT precedent, which makes this pretty open & shut.

Recently the DOJ sued UCLA, arguing that we are such a "hotbed of campus antisemitism"—primarily because of pro-Palestinian student protests—that it's a hostile work environment for Jewish faculty and staff. Well, many actual Jewish faculty and staff vehemently disagree and we wrote this letter:

@CaseViewerApp.bsky.social is much more impressed with Justice Gorsuch’s opinion in the tariffs case than I am…

Well, the DOJ has done it: they have filed a lawsuit against the University of California over antisemitism. The complaint contains some falsehoods. But as someone who teaches and writes about Title VII, I'm equally struck by what the complaint doesn't say. A few thoughts— 🧵

Why anti-Zionism can't properly be treated as antisemitism for purposes of federal civil rights law, in ~ 2 minutes

Here's my opening statement at the civil rights commission hearing on campus antisemitism: www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ_k... I thought it was a great discussion, with very important contributions from @genevievelakier.bsky.social and @dorfonlaw.bsky.social and apt questions from the commissioners.

I will be testifying at this panel also, along with @beidelson.bsky.social and Eugene Volokh. it should be interesting bc panelists are very far apart: Did the fed gov do too little to repress antisemitic student speech on campus after Oct 2023? or did it instead flagrantly violate 1A rights?

Update: I pointed out this tension with Trump DOJ guidance, and the EEOC Chair responded that it's "[e]mbarrassing that a Harvard Law professor has this degree of reading and listening comprehension issues." Ok then!

Isn't this message from the EEOC blatantly unconstitutional under Trump DOJ guidance? A nice exhibit for any university challenged over targeted recruitment or the like! "Are you a white male who has experienced discrimination at work based on your race or sex? You may have a claim..."

It seems to me Congress should hold off on funding elaborate conspiracies to violate the Constitution.

The latest version of Case Viewer (www.caseviewer.app) includes a beta of an integrated chatbot that's pretty distinctive and genuinely useful (IMHO). It reads the case, answers directly based on the text, and scrolls you to the relevant passages. @caseviewerapp.bsky.social

New experiments with an integrated chat/assistant for Case Viewer. Still pretty amazing what LLMs can do, especially when they have full access to the relevant text

I am trying to keep most of the Case Viewer content on @CaseViewerApp.bsky.social, but I'm especially proud of this innovation and can't resist sharing it here too. The best way to read a judicial opinion, IMHO. (The magic is that none of the section titles below are actually in the opinion.)

A nice write up about Case Viewer, my legal browser app: hls.harvard.edu/today/harvar... If you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac and haven't tried it, you should! Learn more at www.caseviewer.app, follow @caseviewerapp.bsky.social, or download for free from app store: apps.apple.com/app/apple-st...

Based on the @theharvardcrimson.bsky.social's new reporting, Harvard's commitment to scrubbing discussion of race from the admissions process (left) appears to go far beyond what the conservative Supreme Court majority actually required in SFFA (right).

Check out the latest version of Case Viewer on the App Store — now with detailed AI annotations, on iPhone, iPad, and macOS apps.apple.com/app/apple-st...

Kagan’s short dissent is unanswerable.

Case Viewer is one of those tools you didn't know you needed. Apple-only for now, but it brings a simple, clean interface to reading case law, and it's finally out of beta! We're proud to have our APIs and data integrated into the tool and we encourage folks to give it a try!

Case Viewer, my quirky side project of building my ideal legal search & reading app, has come a long way. With lots of help, it's grown into the best way to find & read cases on a Mac, iPhone, or iPad. Check it out or download on the App Store below. And follow @CaseViewerApp for updates!

Even with its professed limits, Trump’s flag-burning order appears blatantly unconstitutional. “Prosecute disfavored acts of expression insofar as they also constitute criminal acts under some content-neutral law” is not content-neutral. @charliesavage.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/live/2025/08...

I have learned a ton from engaging across differences with Sherif and this essay is a wonderful example. Highly recommended!