2025-26 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings include the trial advocacy programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Stetson
2	Temple
3	Baylor
4	Samford
5	Fordham
5	UCLA
7	Loyola-L.A.
8	Denver
8	Drexel
8	Hofstra
8	Syracuse
12	Chicago-Kent
12	Mercer
12	South Carolina
12	South Texas
16	Pacific
16	St. Mary's
16	UC-Berkeley
19	Northwestern
19	Pace
21	Georgetown
21	Loyola-Chicago
21	St. John's
24	American
24	Emory
24	Maryland
24	Nova
24	Ohio Northern
29	Houston
29	Howard
29	Inter-American (PR)
29	Suffolk
29	Texas
34	Georgia
34	Harvard
34	Illinois-Chicago
34	Pepperdine
34	Quinnipiac
34	Texas Tech
34	Washington Univ.
41	Campbell
41	Missouri-Kansas City
43	George Washington
43	Louisiana State
43	Ohio State
43	SUNY-Buffalo
43	Villanova
48	Akron
48	Case Western
48	Florida
48	Georgia State
48	Illinois
48	Seton Hall
48	SMU
48	UC Law - SF

2024-25 U.S. News Trial Advocacy Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Legal Ed News Roundup

• ABA Journal, Conservative Group Sues ABA Over Legal Opportunity Scholarship Fund Program
• ABA Journal, House Committee Drops Information Request About Law Clinics Amid ‘Ongoing Negotiations’ With Northwestern
• Above the Law, Law School Cutting Scholarships For Students Who Don’t Commit Fast Enough?
• Above the Law, T14 Law School’s Faculty Shows Biglaw What A Spine Looks Like
• The Alligator, University of Florida Law Student Trespassed From Campus After Racist, Antisemitic Social Media Posts
• Peter Berkowitz (Hoover Institution), Harvard Law School Professors Politicize the Rule of Law
• Bloomberg Law, Cornell Law Grad Quits Simpson Thacher as Firm ‘Capitulates’ to Trump
• Law.com, ‘White Students Not Eligible to Apply’: ABA Facing Lawsuit Over Race-Based Law School Scholarship 

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Are Appellate Clinics Effective?

Xiao Wang (Virginia), Are Appellate Clinics Effective?, 31 Clin. L. Rev. 427 (2025):

Law school clinics are integral to legal education, offering students practical experience while serving clients in need and affecting the law more broadly. But despite the enormous investments in experiential learning that law schools make each year, there remains a lack of comprehensive research assessing the efficacy of clinics in serving clients.

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2025-26 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings include the legal writing programs at 109 law schools (the faculty survey had a 52% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Oregon
1	UNLV
3	Arizona State
3	Stetson
3	Suffolk
6	Seattle
7	Wake Forest
8	UC-Irvine
8	University of Arizona
10	North Carolina
11	Georgetown
11	Nova
11	Rutgers
11	Washburn
15	Houston
15	Mercer
17	Denver
17	Drake
17	Indiana (McKinney)
17	Kansas
17	Lewis & Clark
17	Marquette
17	North Dakota
17	Ohio State
17	St. John's
17	Wyoming
27	Duke
27	Illinois-Chicago
27	Michigan
27	Northeastern
27	Temple
27	Texas A&M
27	William & Mary
34	Arkansas-Little Rock
34	Boston University
34	George Washington
34	Louisville
34	Loyola-L.A.
34	Missouri-Kansas City
34	New York Law School
34	Northwestern
34	St. Thomas (MN)
34	Wisconsin
44	Chicago-Kent
44	Drexel
44	Duquesne
44	Pacific
44	Texas Tech
44	University of Washington
44	Willamette

2024-25 U.S. News Legal Writing Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Bob Jones And The Conservative Case For Not Revoking Harvard's Tax Exemption

The Atlantic:  The Conservative Case for Leaving Harvard Alone, by Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar):

The Supreme Court precedent allowing the IRS to revoke a university’s tax-exempt status is a textualist’s nightmare.

The past few days have seen a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration’s brawl with universities in general and with Harvard in particular. According to multiple reports, the IRS has begun planning to revoke the university’s tax-exempt status. Losing exemption from income taxation would be disastrous for Harvard. Not only does exemption save universities enormous amounts of money that would otherwise be taxed; it is also essential for fundraising, because it allows donors to take charitable deductions.

What is the rationale for the IRS revisiting Harvard’s exemption status? A theory is needed, because section 501(c)(3) of the federal tax code says that an organization “shall”—not “may”—be exempt from taxation if it meets criteria listed in the statute. One of those criteria is for an institution to be organized exclusively for “educational purposes.”

The Trump administration—which shoots first and theorizes later—has not said much. But an intellectual agenda has been building recently to challenge the exempt status of universities and other organizations viewed as left-leaning. (You can see that momentum gathering steam on the Wall Street Journal editorial page here, here, and here.) The unifying theory of this movement is to make expansive new use of a 1983 Supreme Court decision, Bob Jones University v. United States.

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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• Nearly All Elite Law Schools Move Up Summer Associate Job Interviews To May And June
• Haneman: The Liminality Of Transactional Relationships
• 2025-26 U.S. News International Law Rankings
• Tax Day At North Carolina Law School

Sunday:

• The Epic Jesus Follower Fail: The Cringe-Worthy Subplot Of Holy Week Underscores The Truth Of The Gospel
• Things Worth Remembering: The Resurrection Of The Body And The Immortality Of The Soul
• NY Times: White House Of Worship — Christian Prayer Rings Out Under Trump
• Are Faith-Based Law Schools Fairly Ranked By U.S. News?
• Can Universities (And Law Schools) Still Diversify Faculty Hiring Under Trump?
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

The Epic Jesus Follower Fail: The Cringe-Worthy Subplot Of Holy Week Underscores The Truth Of The Gospel

Christianity Today Op-Ed:  The Epic Jesus Follower Fail: The Cringe-Worthy Subplot of Holy Week Underscores the Truth of the Gospel, by Tish Harrison Warren (Priest, Anglican Church; Author, Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep (2021) (Christianity Today's 2022 Book of the Year)):

From its earliest days, God has pursued and propelled the church in spite of our bumbling and failure.

And this week, Holy Week, we notice that in the midst of Christ's passion, death, and resurrection, we also find an embarrassingly painful display of the weakness, confusion, even imbecility of his earliest followers.

In each unfolding event of the week, the apostles disappoint. During the Last Supper, Jesus tells his friends that one of them will betray him and that they'll all abandon him. They respond by telling Jesus that he's underestimated them and arguing about who is the greatest, the most loyal disciple. Then, they fall asleep, more than once, in Gethsemene, too weak to be a friend to Jesus when he is most desperate for one. Then, they panic and draw swords against those who arrested Jesus. Next, in a scene recounted with cringe-worthy detail, Peter swears up and down that he doesn't know Jesus even though it's pretty obvious to everyone around him that he does.

As painful as it is to watch as those closest to Jesus abandon him, this subplot of Holy Week gives me hope. It is good news that the crux of Christianity, that which compels me to believe, is not the coherence of abstract principles writ by holy men or the perfect lives of Christ's followers, but is instead a claim to historic fact. This story of Jesus, this Holy Week, happened in time and space with messy, broken men and women who didn't understand at the time that their friend and teacher was in the process of saving the world.

This year I went through a brief, difficult season of doubt. During this period of struggle, I could not get away from a simple question: Was Jesus resurrected or not?

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Things Worth Remembering: The Resurrection Of The Body And The Immortality Of The Soul

Douglas Murray (The Free Press), Things Worth Remembering: The Resurrection of the Body and the Immortality of the Soul:

Preacher-poet John Donne gave voice to his faith with a sermon on how God will raise the dead.

I wonder if there has ever been a bigger change in our collective way of thinking than in our transition from the age of faith to the age of doubt. Inevitably, it is on my mind this Easter.

Millions of people around the world believe in the literal resurrection, when God lifts His believers into heaven. I suppose untold numbers are unsure or doubtful about this, while keeping within the borders of faith. For myself, I can’t help looking back at the age of faith—or even certainty—with envy.

Last year, I wrote in this space about the great English poet John Donne. He was perhaps the greatest of the “metaphysical” poets, a man whose work was laced with a raciness and a realness that, for some, lay in contradiction with his position as a clergyman and dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London. ...

His very last sermon, given on February 25, 1631, and posthumously published as “Death’s Duel,” was given when Donne was so feeble that those who saw him give it said he already resembled a corpse.

In an age of doubt all this might have been depressing. But in an age of faith—and faith such as Donne’s—it was something beautiful. As he wrote in his Devotions: “I am more than dust and ashes: I am my best part, I am my soul.” ...

One of his greatest sermons, Sermon LXXXI, he preached at the Earl of Bridgewater’s House in London on November 19, 1627, where he reflected on one of the most curious aspects of the resurrection.

The problem he turns over in this sermon—given, astonishingly, at the marriage of the Earl’s daughter—is how God, on the day of resurrection, will reassemble the bodies of the faithful long after they have decayed. Some of the dead, he says, have left limbs in other lands, or their bodies have turned to mulch. Others have ended up in the sea’s mouth. So how is it, on the day of resurrection, that God can call even one of these bodies, let alone all of these bodies, together? Donne both addresses these questions unsparingly and gives an answer that is wonderful—wonderful in its faith, and in its theology also. But perhaps most astonishing to me is the wonder of Donne’s language.

For me, this sings beautifully on the page, but it sounds even better to the ear [read by Douglas Murray here]. 

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NY Times: White House Of Worship — Christian Prayer Rings Out Under Trump

New York Times, White House of Worship: Christian Prayer Rings Out Under Trump:

A cappella hymns rising in the Roosevelt Room.

Prayer “in Jesus’ name” proclaimed from the Cabinet Room.

Hands stretching out in the Oval Office, as pastors invoke Bible passages about how kings are established by God.

From the moment Donald J. Trump was re-elected to the presidency, his conservative Christian supporters have rejoiced in a second chance for their values to have power. And now, week after week, scenes like these are taking place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as they seize on this opportunity.

Routinely, and often at Mr. Trump’s enthusiastic direction, senior administration officials and allied pastors are infusing their brand of Christian worship into the workings of the White House itself, suggesting that his campaign promise to “bring back Christianity” is taking tangible root.

The result at times is an atmosphere inside the White House of a president operating with a divine mission. Amid his administration’s combative postures on issues of economic tariffs, drastic cuts to foreign aid and immigrant deportations, there is an enduring sense among many of his Christian supporters that Mr. Trump miraculously survived an assassination attempt last summer to remake America.

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Are Faith-Based Law Schools Fairly Ranked By U.S. News?

Anton Sorkin (Director of Law Student Ministries, Christian Legal Society):

Interesting observation from David Lat: “schools with a strong ideological brand, including religiously affiliated law schools  . . .  tend to fare well in rankings[.]”

Imagine how well they'd fare if there wasn't a peer ranking penalty, tabulated by Michael Conklin at 17.65 in his upcoming paper [Religious Law Schools, Rankings, and Bias: Measuring the Rankings Penalty at Religious Law Schools].

Latest rankings has the peer reputation average for the most devout law schools: ...

The RED [above] is all the schools that fare worse among their peers vs. their overall rank. The GREEN are the same schools as last year with positive peer scores. 

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Can Universities (And Law Schools) Still Diversify Faculty Hiring Under Trump?

Inside Higher Ed, Can Universities Still Diversify Faculty Hiring Under Trump?:

Before Donald Trump retook office, advocates of a more demographically diverse U.S. professoriate were already criticizing existing hiring efforts as inadequate. One late-2022 paper in Nature Human Behaviour noted that, at recent rates, “higher education will never achieve demographic parity among tenure-track faculty.”

One example of the disparity: As of November 2023, only 8 percent of U.S. assistant professors were Black, according to the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. That’s significantly less than Black representation in the U.S. population, currently estimated by the Census to be 13.7 percent. And the CUPA-HR data showed that the Black share of tenure-track and tenured professors decreases as rank increases—only 5 percent of associate professors and 3.6 percent of full professors were Black.

Efforts that institutions have made to racially diversify their faculties drew political backlash well before Trump regained the White House, with activists, organizations and some faculty criticizing university hiring practices and state legislatures passing laws banning affirmative action and/or diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. The goal of a more representative faculty slipped further out of reach starting on Inauguration Day, when Trump issued executive orders targeting DEI, including what he dubbed “illegal DEI discrimination.”

His administration’s crusade has continued, including with a letter Friday demanding that Harvard University end all DEI initiatives, “implement merit-based hiring policies” and “cease all preferences based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin throughout its hiring, promotion, compensation, and related practices.” (Harvard has refused to comply with Trump’s orders, which go far beyond hiring, and the federal government has frozen part of the university’s funding and threatened its tax-exempt status.)

Given the current political situation—not just nationally, but also among the growing number of states with DEI and/or affirmative action restrictions—how can higher ed institutions continue to diversify their faculties?

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This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

Legal Education: 

1. U.S. News, 2025-26 Law Specialty Rankings
   1. Constitutional Law
   2. Contracts/Commercial Law
   3. Criminal Law
   4. Dispute Resolution
   5. Environmental Law
   6. Health Care Law
   7. Intellectual Property Law
   8. International Law
2. Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed (Phillip Levine (Wellesley College & Brookings Institution)), These 77 Colleges (And 45 Law Schools) Have The Most To Lose From Trump’s Cuts
3. CUPA-HR, Tenure-Track Faculty Raises Continue To Lag All Other Higher Ed Workers; Inflation-Adjusted Salaries Are 10% Lower Than In 2017
4. MLive, Hundreds Of ‘Stunned’ Michigan Law Alums Blast DEI Cuts
5. Reuters, ‘White Students Not Eligible to Apply’: ABA Sued Over Race-Based Law School Scholarship
6. Washington Free Beacon, At ‘Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon,’ Harvard Law Students Target Pages Of Law Firms That Criticized School's Response To Anti-Semitism
7. The Walrus, UBC Law School Faces Fresh Allegations Of Discrimination
8. James Ming Chen (Michigan State), Principia Bibliometrica: Modeling Citation And Download Data In Legal Scholarship
9. ABA Journal, California Bar Still Can't Decide How To Make Applicants Whole After Botched February Bar Exam
10. Bloomberg Law, Law Students Sue EEOC Over Big Law Diversity Scrutiny

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to legal education posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.

Tax:

1. Florida Bar, Winners Of The 2025 National Tax Moot Court Competition
2. Brian Galle (Georgetown), David Gamage (Missouri) & Bob Lord (Patriotic Millionaires), Taxing Dynasties
3. Richard Winchester (Brooklyn), Presentation Of A Tax Policing Paradox At Columbia
4. Gladriel Shobe (BYU) & Matthew Johnson (Cravath, New York), Geographic Inequality And The SALT Deduction
5. SSRN, The Top Five New Tax Papers
6. Samantha Strimling (J.D. 2024, Harvard), Good Governance Is Taxing: The Implications Of Tax Policy For Separation Of Powers And The Major Questions Doctrine
7. University of New South Wales, 16th International ATAX Tax Administration Conference: Getting It Right
8. Diane Lourdes Dick (Iowa), Creative Tax Writing At Iowa
9. Emily Cauble (Wisconsin), Channels Of Tax Law (Mis)Information
10. Manoj Viswanathan (UC Law-SF), Presentation Of Damage Award Taxation And Distributive Justice At Duke

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to tax posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.

Faith:

1. Christianity Today (Esau McCaulley (Wheaton College)), This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Palm Branches
2. Jennifer Lee Koh (Pepperdine), Christian Lawyers In The Public Interest And Outside The Political Right
3. New York Times (Ross Douthat), Can The Jesus Of History Support The Christ Of Faith?
4. The New Yorker (Adam Gopnik), Why We Can’t Stop Talking About Jesus
5. Alistair Begg (Parkside Church, Cleveland), The Essence Of Good Friday: The Man On The Middle Cross

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a weekly email each Sunday with links to faith posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here. 

Nearly All Elite Law Schools Move Up Summer Associate Job Interviews To May And June

Reuters, Top Law Schools Move Up Summer Associate Job Interviews to May and June:

Nearly all elite U.S. law schools have pushed up their formal law firm interviewing programs to May and June this year, as law firms increasingly hire summer associates earlier and outside of traditional recruiting schedules.

The shift — from July and August to May and June — means that some law firm interview programs, commonly referred to as on-campus recruiting or OCI, will take place before firms have a full year of a candidate’s grades to consider. Major law firms recruit law students to work as summer associates following their second year of law school, which is typically a three-year program. ...

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2025-26 U.S. News International Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News International Law Rankings include the international law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	NYU
2	Harvard
3	Columbia
3	Georgetown
3	Yale
6	American
6	UC-Berkeley
8	George Washington
8	Michigan
10	Stanford
11	Cornell
11	Virginia
13	Case Western
13	Duke
13	Temple
13	Chicago
17	UCLA
18	Penn
19	Fordham
19	Vanderbilt
19	Washington Univ.
22	Indiana (Maurer)
22	Northwestern
22	UC-Davis
22	Georgia
26	Minnesota
26	Notre Dame
26	Texas
29	Boston College
29	Boston University
29	Emory
29	Tulane
29	UC-Irvine
29	Miami
29	Pacific
29	William & Mary
37	Arizona State
37	Santa Clara
37	University of Washington
37	Wisconsin
41	Florida Int'l
41	Ohio State
41	Denver
41	Washington & Lee
45	BYU
45	Loyola-Chicago
45	Northeastern
45	Rutgers
45	Texas A&M
45	University of Arizona
45	Connecticut
45	Hawaii
45	Maryland
45	Pittsburgh

2024-25 U.S. News International Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Tax Day At North Carolina Law School

On Tuesday, April 15th, Tax Profs Leigh Osofsky and Kathleen DeLaney Thomas hosted North Carolina Law School's annual Tax Day celebration, filling the law school rotunda with tax law students, costume contests, tax bingo, tax challenge problems, tax trivia, prizes, food, and more:

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABA Journal, Federal Judge's Columbia Clerk Boycott Didn't Harm Public Confidence in Judiciary, Judicial Council Rules
• Bloomberg Law, Law School Students Sue EEOC Over Big Law Diversity Scrutiny
• Boston University Law Review, Diversity & Inclusion Book
• Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed, by Phillip Levine (Wellesley College & Brookings Institution), These 77 Colleges Have the Most to Lose From Trump’s Cuts
• CUPA-HR, Most Higher Ed Employees Received Raises This Past Year That Outpaced Inflation, But Today’s Pay Still Falls Short of Pre-Pandemic Pay in Inflation-Adjusted Dollars
• Diane Lourdes Dick (Iowa), Creative Tax Writing At Iowa
• MLive, 100s of ‘Stunned’ University of Michigan Law School Alums Blast DEI Cuts
• Reuters, ABA Sued Over Diversity Scholarships by Conservative Group

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UBC Law School Faces Fresh Allegations Of Discrimination

The Walrus, UBC Law School Faces Fresh Allegations of Discrimination:

In December 2019, Brenna Bhandar interviewed for the position of associate professor at the Peter A. Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia—one of the most prestigious law schools in Canada. Despite a recommendation from the appointments committee, the dean at the time decided not to hire her. Bhandar uses the lens of settler colonialism to understand how Israel’s legal system has been used to dispossess Palestinians of their land—a framework some members of the department argued was antisemitic. When twelve faculty members wrote a confidential letter to the dean, asking for transparency around the decision, they said they were shunned by their colleagues and bullied by senior leadership.

In an investigation for The Walrus in November [An Elite Law School Promised Reforms, Then Made Inclusion Impossible], I reported on the fallout from the letter, as well as on other allegations of systematic discrimination and harassment at Allard, including allegations from female professors that they were being paid less than their male colleagues. The investigation was shared widely in the legal community, but students and professors say that instead of using the opportunity to address long-standing issues, the administration has doubled down on its refusal to reckon with its workplace culture.

The day after the investigation was published, Ngai Pindell, the current dean at Allard, emailed faculty saying he was concerned by the breach of confidentiality but admitted that sharing information with a journalist “is not a crime.” He added, “This is a grave undermining of faculty governance, collegiality, and a respectful workplace,” he wrote. He didn’t address any of the allegations in the article. ...

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2025-26 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings include the intellectual property law programs at 194 law schools (the faculty survey had a 56% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Stanford
2	UC-Berkeley
3	NYU
4	Santa Clara
5	George Washington
6	American
6	Cardozo
6	Texas A&M
9	Chicago-Kent
9	Georgetown
9	Penn
12	Boston University
12	Columbia
12	Duke
12	Harvard
12	Houston
12	Michigan
12	Texas
12	UCLA
20	Fordham
20	San Diego
20	Virginia
23	Northwestern
24	Chicago
24	Minnesota
26	Cornell
26	George Mason
26	Northeastern
26	Utah
26	Vanderbilt
31	Boston College
31	North Carolina
31	UC-Davis
31	Washington Univ.
35	DePaul
35	Emory
35	Indiana (Maurer)
35	New Hampshire
35	Richmond
35	Temple
35	UC-Irvine
35	University of Washington
35	UNLV
35	William & Mary
45	Colorado
45	Denver
45	Florida
45	Loyola-Chicago
45	Suffolk
45	USC
45	Villanova
45	Yale

2024-25 U.S. News Intellectual Property Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Next Week’s Tax Workshops

Monday, April 21: Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar) will present Apportioned Direct Taxes (with Ari Glogower (Northwestern; Google Scholar)) as part of the Columbia Davis Polk & Wardwell Tax Policy Colloquium. If you would like to attend, please contact Michael Love. 

Wednesday, April 23: Shu-Yi Oei (Duke; Google Scholar) will present Global Tax Decluttering, 77 U.C. L.J. __ (2025) (with Diane Ring (Boston College; Google Scholar)) as part of the Missouri Tax Policy Colloquium. If you would like to attend, please contact David Gamage. 

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Washington University Symposium: New Developments In Clinical Education, Dispute Resolution, And Professional Identity

Symposium, New Developments In Clinical Education, Dispute Resolution, And Professional Identity, 75 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 1-215 (2024): 

• Karen Tokarz (Washington University), New Directions in Clinical Education, Dispute Resolution, and Professional Identity: Introduction, 75 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y i (2024)
• Bryan L. Adamson (Case Western; Google Scholar), Case Western Reserve University School of Law's Academy for Inclusive Leadership Development: A New Pedagogy Integrating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusive Belonging into Legal Education, 75 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 1 (2024)
• Steven J. Alagna (Washington University), The Pedagogical Value of Clinical Amicus Advocacy, 75 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 47 (2024)
• Megan Bess (Illinois-Chicago; Google Scholar), Nira Geevargis (UC Law-SF) & June T. Tai (Iowa), Case Rounds Redefined: Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Reflective Practice, 75 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol'y 71 (2024)

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Creative Tax Writing At Iowa

Diane Lourdes Dick (Iowa), Creative Tax Writing At Iowa:

This year, I invited students in both of my Spring 2025 tax courses at the University of Iowa College of Law to participate in a new (and entirely optional!) creative writing competition.

The prompt was simple—but strange:

Imagine a world where cash no longer necessarily has a basis equal to face.

Students could respond in any narrative form—short story, poem, or something in between—and were explicitly permitted to use generative AI to assist with brainstorming, drafting, and editing. The result was a wildly creative and pedagogically rich experiment in how tax law can come alive through storytelling.

Submissions were evaluated on three criteria: tax substantive knowledge (40%), creative writing (40%), and overall quality (20%).

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Boston University Law Review: Diversity & Inclusion Book

Diversity & Inclusion Book, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 1-287 (2024):

• Carmen Alvarado-Hernandez (J.D. 2024, Boston University) & Madeline A. Freeman (J.D. 2024, Boston University), Editors’ Foreword, 104 B.U. L. Rev. (2024)
• Asad Rahim (UC-Berkeley), The Legitimacy Trap, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 1 (2024)
• Ndjuoh MehChu (Seton Hall; Google Scholar), Neither Cops nor Caseworkers: Transforming Family Policing Through Participatory Budgeting, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 73 (2024)
• Brenda D. Gibson (Wake Forest; Google Scholar), Affirmative Reaction: The Blueprint for Diversity and Inclusion in the Legal Profession After SFFA, 104 B.U. L. Rev. 123 (2024)

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2025-26 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings include the health care law programs at 191 law schools (the faculty survey had a 45% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	St. Louis
2	Boston University
3	Georgia State
4	Loyola-Chicago
4	Maryland
6	Harvard
7	Stanford
8	Georgetown
9	Houston
9	Northeastern
9	Seton Hall
12	Yale
13	Arizona State
13	Case Western
13	Temple
16	UC Law - SF
17	George Washington
17	Ohio State
17	UCLA
20	American
20	Drexel
20	Michigan
20	Penn
24	Emory
24	Wake Forest
26	DePaul
26	Duke
26	Mitchell | Hamline
29	Minnesota
30	Indiana (McKinney)
30	North Carolina
30	Utah
30	Virginia
34	Boston College
34	Indiana (Maurer)
34	NYU
34	Pittsburgh
34	Texas
34	University of Washington
40	Georgia
40	Oklahoma
40	Vanderbilt
40	Washington Univ.
44	Quinnipiac
44	Texas A&M
46	Columbia
46	Cornell
46	Northwestern
46	SMU
46	Suffolk
46	University of Arizona
46	UNLV

2024-25 U.S. News Health Care Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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2025 Tannenwald Tax Writing Competition

The Theodore Tannenwald, Jr. Foundation for Excellence in Tax Scholarship and American College of Tax Counsel are sponsoring the 2025 Tannenwald Writing Competition.

Named for the late Tax Court Judge Theodore Tannenwald, Jr., and designed to perpetuate his dedication to high-quality legal scholarship, the Tannenwald Writing Competition is open to all full- or part-time law school students in J.D., LL.M., and other graduate law programs. This is the 24th year of the competition, and over 600 entries have been received since its inception. All submissions are reviewed by a panel of tax professors and practitioners.

Papers on any federal or state tax-related topic may be submitted in accordance with the Competition Rules. ...

Prizes: 

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Law Students Sue EEOC Over Big Law Diversity Scrutiny

Bloomberg Law, Law School Students Sue EEOC Over Big Law Diversity Scrutiny:

Three law school students sued the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Tuesday over the agency’s probe into Big Law diversity hiring practices.

The students—anonymously referenced in their complaint as Doe 1, Doe 2 and Doe 3—asked a District of Columbia federal judge to order the EEOC and acting chair Andrea Lucas to withdraw investigative letters sent to 20 of the country’s most prominent law firms, asking for demographic hiring data dating as far back as 2015.

From the complaint:

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‘White Students Not Eligible to Apply’: ABA Sued Over Race-Based Law School Scholarship

Reuters, ABA Sued Over Diversity Scholarships by Conservative Group:

A prominent conservative group sued the American Bar Association on Saturday, alleging that a scholarship program meant to boost the number of racially and ethnically diverse law students is discriminatory.

In a complaint filed in an Illinois federal court, the American Alliance for Equal Rights — led by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum — alleged that the ABA’s 25-year-old Legal Opportunity Scholarship discriminates against white applicants because they are ineligible to apply. ...

The Alliance said it is representing an unnamed white male law school applicant who would apply for the $15,000 Legal Opportunity Scholarship were he eligible. The ABA awards between 20 and 25 such scholarships annually to incoming law students, according to its website.

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2025-26 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings include the environmental law programs at 189 law schools (the faculty survey had a 50% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Pace
2	Lewis & Clark
2	UC-Berkeley
4	Vermont
5	Columbia
6	UCLA
7	Colorado
7	Harvard
7	NYU
7	Oregon
7	Utah
12	Stanford
12	Vanderbilt
14	Duke
14	Georgetown
16	Arizona State
16	UC-Davis
18	Florida State
18	George Washington
18	Michigan
21	Denver
21	Maryland
21	UC Law - SF
21	Yale
25	Kansas
25	Penn
25	Texas A&M
25	Tulane
25	Virginia
30	Case Western
30	Florida
30	Minnesota
30	New Mexico
30	UC-Irvine
30	University of Arizona
36	Hawaii
36	Houston
38	Emory
38	Indiana (Maurer)
38	Miami
38	Texas
38	University of Washington
38	Wisconsin
44	Northwestern
44	Ohio State
46	Cornell
46	Maine
46	Montana
46	Wyoming
50	Boston College
50	Georgia
50	Iowa
50	North Carolina
50	Notre Dame
50	San Diego

2024-25 U.S. News Environmental Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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At ‘Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon,’ Harvard Law Students Target Pages Of Law Firms That Criticized School's Response To Anti-Semitism

Washington Free Beacon, At Harvard-Hosted 'Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon,' Law Students Target the Pages of Firms That Criticized School's Response to Anti-Semitism:

Harvard Law students also edited Wikipedia to downplay anti-Semitic activity on college campuses.

Anti-Israel Harvard Law School students organized a workshop on the Ivy League campus earlier this month to edit the Wikipedia pages of more than a dozen prominent law firms, singling out some that threatened to stop recruiting at the school over its failure to rein in anti-Semitic activity.

Harvard’s National Lawyers Guild chapter, a left-wing legal advocacy group, hosted the "Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon" on April 2 at Harvard Law’s WCC student center, according to an announcement on Harvard Law’s website [Big Law, Big Secrets: Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon]. ...

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These 77 Colleges (And 45 Law Schools) Have The Most To Lose From Trump’s Cuts

Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed:  These 77 Colleges Have the Most to Lose From Trump’s Cuts, by Phillip Levine (Wellesley College & Brookings Institution):

What does President Trump mean for college finances? In January, I speculated that colleges could be in for belt-tightening or even extensive damage in the case of an increased endowment tax — though the situation wasn’t yet clear. A few months into his administration, some of the details are becoming clearer, and the likely result is that many colleges face an enormous financial impact.

The obvious examples include the funding-cutoff threats made to Columbia University ($400 million), the University of Pennsylvania ($175 million), Harvard University ($9 billion!), Brown University ($510 million), Princeton University ($210 million), Cornell University ($1 billion), and Northwestern University ($790 million). Those ad hoc threats are extensive, but they overlook the broader financial risk that dozens of institutions face by more-systematic policy interventions. These include potential cuts to National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation funding, along with a tax on the endowments of wealthy private institutions. I focus on these three policies because they have the greatest potential to significantly disrupt the financial workings of a large number of institutions.

In total, 77 institutions find themselves subject to large costs associated with at least one of these policies. ... The results of this analysis are presented in the following table. It contains estimated endowment taxes, NIH cuts, and NSF cuts separately, along with their total cost for each of the 77 institutions listed. These institutions were selected because they were among the top 50 in the country in the rankings of at least one of three categories: the total cost of these policies, the total cost per student, and the total cost as a percentage of total expenses. Many institutions face top-50-level exposure to more than one of these measures. Other institutions also face risks, but these have the most at stake should Trump’s policies become effective.

Here are the 45 institutions with law schools and the total costs of Trump's cuts:

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2025-26 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings include the dispute resolution programs at 149 law schools (the faculty survey had a 43% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Ohio State
2	Pepperdine
3	Harvard
3	Texas A&M
5	Cardozo
5	Missouri-Columbia
7	Northwestern
8	Mitchell | Hamline
9	Arizona State
9	Maryland
9	UNLV
12	Fordham
12	Oregon
14	Florida
14	Quinnipiac
14	Stanford
14	UC Law - SF
18	Georgetown
18	Pace
18	Pacific
18	Stetson
18	Suffolk
23	Columbia
23	Houston
23	South Texas
23	UC-Davis
27	Michigan
27	UC-Irvine
29	Baylor
29	Kansas
29	Loyola-Chicago
29	Miami
29	UCLA
29	Washington Univ.
35	American
35	Creighton
35	Denver
35	Emory
35	Howard
35	Illinois
35	Nebraska
35	NYU
35	St. Mary's
35	Temple
35	Texas
35	Vanderbilt
35	William & Mary
48	Arkansas-Little Rock
48	Boston College
48	Cornell
48	George Washington
48	Indiana (Maurer)
48	Marquette
48	North Carolina
48	Penn
48	UC-Berkeley
48	USC
48	Wake Forest

2024-25 U.S. News Dispute Resolution Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Legal Ed News Roundup

• ABA Journal, After Texas Chief Justice Criticizes ABA, State Supreme Court Reconsiders ABA Accreditation For Law Schools
• ABA Journal, Changing Course: An Olympian, an Actor and a Priest Prepare For the Bar–But What Led Them to Law School?
• ABA Journal, Federal Judge’s Columbia Clerk Boycott Didn’t Harm Public Confidence In Judiciary, Judicial Council Rules
• ABA Journal, Harvard Law, Duke University Fall Out Of Top 5 In Latest Us News Law School Rankings
• ABA Journal, Which Firms, Legal Groups, Law Profs Signed Briefs Supporting Perkins Coie In Challenge To Punitive Trump Order?
• Business Insider, I Helped My Daughter Get Into Law School by Pulling Strings and Got Her a Job at My Law Firm. Some Colleagues Don't Respect Her at Work.

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Hundreds Of ‘Stunned’ Michigan Law Alums Blast DEI Cuts

MLive, 100s of ‘Stunned’ University of Michigan Law School Alums Blast DEI Cuts:

Hundreds of alumni from the University of Michigan Law School expressed their frustrations about the university’s cuts to its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in a recent letter.

The Wednesday, April 9, letter was addressed to Law School interim dean Kyle Logue was sent on behalf of more than 250 alumni. Organizers behind the group, Concerned University of Michigan Law School Alumni, confirmed the letter now has over 330 signatures and counting.

“All of us are stunned that the decision to terminate all diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives at Michigan may now put us at odds with the very institution that empowered us to fight injustice and taught us respect for the rule of law,” the letter read.

UM announced on March 27 it was immediately closing its Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Office for Health Equity and Inclusion and discontinuing its DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan. These changes come as universities face funding threats around DEI under President Donald Trump’s administration. ...

Logue wrote in a letter following the announcement there will be “no operational effect at the Law School,” because of how it has implemented DEI over the years.

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2025-26 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings include the criminal law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 47% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	NYU
1	Stanford
3	Harvard
3	Michigan
3	Penn
3	Virginia
7	UC-Berkeley
8	UCLA
9	Chicago
9	Columbia
9	Duke
9	Georgetown
9	Vanderbilt
9	Yale
15	Northwestern
16	Fordham
16	Ohio State
16	Texas
16	UC-Davis
20	Brooklyn
21	Boston University
21	Cardozo
21	Cornell
21	Minnesota
21	North Carolina
21	UC-Irvine
21	Washington Univ.
21	William & Mary
29	American
29	Maryland
29	USC
32	Arizona State
32	George Washington
34	Emory
34	Florida State
34	University of Washington
34	Utah
34	Wake Forest
34	Wisconsin
40	Boston College
40	Denver
40	Florida
40	Georgia State
40	Illinois
40	Indiana (Maurer)
40	Richmond
40	Rutgers
40	San Diego
40	SMU
40	Tulane

2024-25 U.S. News Criminal Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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TaxProf Blog Weekend Roundup

Saturday:

• This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts
• 7th Circuit Judicial Council Dismisses Misconduct Complaint Against Federal Judge For Columbia Law Clerk Boycott
• Good Governance Is Taxing: The Implications Of Tax Policy For Separation Of Powers And The Major Questions Doctrine
• 2025-26 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings
• Winners Of The 2025 National Tax Moot Court Competition

Sunday:

• This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Palm Branches
• Good Friday Reminds Us Of The Ephemerality Of Human Power
• The Essence Of Good Friday: The Man On The Middle Cross
• Praying In The Shadow Of Gethsemane And Good Friday
• Tenure-Track Faculty Raises Continue To Lag All Other Higher Ed Workers; Inflation-Adjusted Salaries Are 10% Lower Than In 2017
• 2025-26 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings
• The Top Five New Tax Papers

This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Palm Branches

Christianity Today:  This Palm Sunday, Ponder Donkeys, Not Branches, by Esau McCaulley (Wheaton College; Author, The New Testament in Color: A Multiethnic Bible Commentary  (2024)):

Christian churches throughout the world will begin our holiest week of the year on what is popularly known as Palm Sunday. It commemorates one of the few events in the life of Jesus recorded in all four gospel stories: his entry into Jerusalem, followed by a raucous and warm welcome and a lot of waving branches. (Only John 12:13 mentions they were palms.) In Israel today, churches still reenact the journey from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem—the route supposedly taken by Jesus all those centuries ago.

As I study this story in Scripture, I’m struck by the fact that the primary symbol for this day—a palm—was not chosen by Jesus.

John writes, “They took palm branches and went out to meet him” (John 12:13). Why did the crowd choose palm branches? It could simply have been that palms were nearby. But history tells us there might have been a deeper reason: Those plants were symbolically linked to military victories and Messiahship.

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Good Friday Reminds Us Of The Ephemerality Of Human Power

The Atlantic:  The Greatest Contribution of Christianity, by Peter Wehner (Senior Fellow, Trinity Forum):

Nearly 15 years ago, I had the chance to ask Christopher Hitchens, one of the world’s most prominent critics of religion, a simple question: “What do you think is the greatest contribution of Christianity, either writ large in terms of society or writ small in terms of individual lives?”

To which Hitchens, an atheist who grew up as a nominal Christian, replied, “The greatest contribution of Christianity in my life is the reminder of the complete ephemerality of human power, and indeed of human existence—the transience of all states, empires, heroes, grandiose claims, and so forth. That’s always with me. And I daresay I could have got that from Einstein—I would have—and from Darwin, too. But the way I got it and the way it’s implanted in me is certainly by Christianity.”

Hitch was onto something. Good Friday, which commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus, and Easter, which celebrates his resurrection, are very good occasions to reflect on faith, human power, and its ephemerality. ...

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The Essence Of Good Friday: The Man On The Middle Cross

Alistair Begg (Senior Pastor, Parkside Church (Cleveland)), The Man on the Middle Cross Said I Can Come:

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Praying In The Shadow Of Gethsemane And Good Friday

Christianity Today:  Praying in the Shadow of Gethsemane, by John C. Peckham (Andrews University; Google Scholar; Author, Why We Pray: Understanding Prayer in the Context of Cosmic Conflict  (2024)):

Even the most spiritually mature adults can struggle with the purpose and effect of their prayers—particularly when God seems absent or silent in their hour of greatest need, despite how faithfully and fervently they pray. If God is perfectly good, all-powerful, and knows our needs before we ask (as Jesus himself taught in Matthew 6:8), how could our prayers make any difference in God’s action? Wouldn’t God already know, will, and do whatever is preferable regardless of whether or how we pray?

These are not easy questions to answer, and they bring up sticky theological quandaries, such as how God’s sovereignty and human free will could possibly coexist. On this issue, Christians land on various parts of a spectrum, seeing it as some form of divine determinism, an optimistic vision of human partnership with God, or something else. Some see prayer primarily as a personal devotional practice that does not influence divine action, while others assume that unanswered prayers reflect the lack of faith of those praying. ...

Christ’s prayers in Gethsemane are especially profound and shed significant light on how to pray faithfully amid such questions.

It was the night before Jesus was to be crucified. In deep distress, he withdrew to pray, as he often did. Enveloped by profound darkness, “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matt. 26:38), Jesus instructed his disciples to pray, moved a little way off, and “fell with his face to the ground,” praying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will” (Matt. 26:39).

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Tenure-Track Faculty Raises Continue To Lag All Other Higher Ed Workers; Inflation-Adjusted Salaries Are 10% Lower Than In 2017

College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, Most Higher Ed Employees Received Raises This Past Year That Outpaced Inflation, But Today’s Pay Still Falls Short of Pre-Pandemic Pay in Inflation-Adjusted Dollars:

New research from CUPA-HR shows that median pay increases for most higher education employees in 2024-25 remained strong, although they have dropped from the historically high increases seen in the previous two years. And although raises this past year for most employees outpaced inflation, they are still being paid less than they were in 2019-20 in inflation-adjusted dollars. The largest gap between pre-pandemic inflation-adjusted salaries and current salaries is for tenure-track faculty (who are paid 10.2% less), followed by non-tenure-track teaching faculty (paid 7.6% less). The smallest gap is for staff (paid 2.8% less).

Some of the other key findings from an analysis of CUPA-HR’s higher ed workforce salary survey data from 2016-17 to 2024-25: ...

• For the third consecutive year, tenure-track faculty received the lowest salary increase of all employee categories (2.6%). Across the nine years of data analyzed, tenure-track faculty salaries have not once exceeded the rate of inflation. This essentially means that — in real dollars — they have received salary decreases for the past decade.

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2025-26 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings include the contracts/commercial law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 36% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Chicago
1	Harvard
1	Stanford
4	Columbia
4	Yale
6	Michigan
6	NYU
6	Penn
6	UC-Berkeley
6	Virginia
11	Georgetown
11	UCLA
13	Cornell
13	Northwestern
13	Texas
13	Vanderbilt
17	Duke
18	Washington Univ.
19	Florida
19	Iowa
19	Minnesota
19	North Carolina
23	Emory
23	Fordham
23	USC
26	Boston University
26	Georgia
26	UC-Irvine
26	William & Mary
30	Florida State
30	George Mason
30	Illinois
30	Notre Dame
30	Ohio State
35	Alabama
35	Boston College
35	Cardozo
35	Indiana (Maurer)
35	Tulane
35	UC-Davis
35	University of Washington
35	Washington & Lee
35	Wisconsin
44	Arizona State
44	Colorado
44	George Washington
44	Kansas
44	Temple
44	Tennessee
44	Texas A&M
44	University of Arizona
44	Wake Forest

2024-25 U.S. News Contracts/Commercial Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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This Week's Ten Most Popular TaxProf Blog Posts

Legal Education: 

1. U.S. News, 2025-26 Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings)
2. Donald Tobin (Maryland), XPT Top 25 Law School Rankings (Alpha Phase)
3. Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), More Commentary On The 2025-26 U.S. News Law School Rankings
4. U.S. News, 2025-26 Law Specialty Rankings
   
   1. Business Law
   2. Clinical Training
   3. Tax Law
5. Wall Street Journal, Students At Elite Law Schools Rebel Against Big Law Firms That Capitulated To Trump
6. Andrew Blair-Stanek (Maryland), LLMs Provide Unstable Answers To Legal Questions
7. Reuters, Texas Supreme Court May No Longer Require Graduation From ABA-Accredited Law School To Practice Law In The State
8. Jeffrey Bellin (William & Mary), The High Cost Of Law School Casebooks
9. Donald Tobin (Maryland), Building A Better Law School Rankings Mousetrap
10. Law360, Chicago Law School Seeks 7th Circuit En Banc Rehearing Of Tenured Professor's Retaliation Lawsuit

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to legal education posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.

Tax:

1. U.S. News, 2025-26 Tax Law Rankings
2. Bryan Camp (Texas Tech), Lesson From The Tax Court: A Captivating Lesson On Insurance
3. Talking Points Memo, DOGE To Shutter DOJ Tax Division
4. Bloomberg Law, 11th Circuit Poised To Uphold Constitutionality Of Tax Court Despite President's Ability To Fire Judges Only For Cause
5. Florida Tax Review, New Issue
6. Adam Kern (San Diego), Review Of The Constitutional Law Of Tax By Daniel Hemel (NYU)
7. Tax Prof Move, Sarah Lawsky Leaves Northwestern For Illinois
8. Brian Galle (Georgetown), Presentation Of How To Tax The Rich: Options For 2025 And Beyond At Toronto
9. Lori Stuntz (IRS), Presentation Of Using A Gravity Model To Predict Cross-Border Tax Avoidance At Georgetown
10. Donald Tobin (Maryland), DOGE And Conservatives Can’t Really Want To Shutter DOJ Tax

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a daily email with links to tax posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here.

Faith:

1. Vanity Fair (Zoe Bernard), Christianity Was ‘Borderline Illegal” In Silicon Valley. Now It’s The New Religion
2. Dispatch Faith (Paul Miller (Georgetown)), A Confessing Church for America’s Weimar Moment
3. New York Times (Liam Stack), Yeshiva University Agrees To Recognize LGBTQ Student Group After Five-Year Battle
4. New York Times (Ross Douthat), Can The Jesus Of History Support The Christ Of Faith?
5. BYU Law Review (Jennifer Lee Koh (Pepperdine)), Christian Lawyers In The Public Interest And Outside The Political Right
   Wall Street Journal (Jennifer Frey (Dean, Tulsa)), Flannery O’Connor’s Tales Of Evil And Grace

Editor's Note:  If you would like to receive a weekly email each Sunday with links to faith posts on TaxProf Blog, email me here. 

7th Circuit Judicial Council Dismisses Misconduct Complaint Against Federal Judge For Columbia Law Clerk Boycott

Following up on my previous post, 13 Federal Judges Will Not Hire Law Clerks From Columbia: An ‘Incubator Of Bigotry’:  ABA Journal, Federal Judge's Columbia Clerk Boycott Didn't Harm Public Confidence in Judiciary, Judicial Council Rules:

A judge on the U.S. Court of International Trade did not violate ethics rules by refusing to hire law clerks who attended Columbia University, according to the judicial council of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago.

In an April 8 decision decision, the council dismissed the complaint against Judge Stephen A. Vaden, one of 13 federal judges who participated in the boycott and explained why in a letter to the school. ...

Vaden’s boycott and his signature on the letter do not harm the integrity of the judicial office, do not harm public confidence in the judiciary, and do not cast doubt on his impartiality, the judicial council said. “A judge may refuse to hire law clerks from a law school or university that has, in the judge’s view, failed to foster important aspects of higher education, like civility in discourse, respect for freedom of speech and viewpoint nondiscrimination,” the opinion said.

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2025-26 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings include the constitutional law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 39% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Yale
2	Chicago
2	Harvard
4	Stanford
5	Columbia
5	NYU
5	UC-Berkeley
5	Virginia
9	Michigan
9	Penn
11	Georgetown
12	Cornell
12	Duke
14	Northwestern
14	Texas
16	UCLA
17	Vanderbilt
18	Washington Univ.
19	Minnesota
19	Notre Dame
19	UC-Davis
19	William & Mary
23	Boston University
23	North Carolina
23	Wisconsin
26	Alabama
26	Emory
26	Fordham
26	UC-Irvine
26	USC
31	Arizona State
31	George Washington
31	Ohio State
31	San Diego
35	Boston College
35	Florida
37	Florida State
37	Georgia
37	Iowa
37	University of Arizona
41	George Mason
41	Georgia State
41	Indiana (Maurer)
41	Maryland
41	Texas A&M
41	Wake Forest
47	Brooklyn
47	BYU
47	Cardozo
47	Colorado
47	Illinois
47	Pepperdine
47	Richmond
47	Washington & Lee

2024-25 U.S. News Constitutional Law Rankings

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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Winners Of The 2025 National Tax Moot Court Competition

Florida Bar, Stetson Captures Tax Section’s 2025 National Tax Moot Court Crown:

After three days of competition featuring teams from law schools across the nation, Stetson University College of Law emerged as the overall champion in the Tax Section’s 2025 National Tax Moot Court Competition, sweeping the event with top honors in Best Oral Argument, Best Brief, and Best Oralist Final Round. ...

Stetson Law Moot Court team members Mia Bartolomei-Negron and Eddie Hong with Stetson Law Associate Professor Andrew Appleby. Bartolomei-Negron and Hong took top honors in the Tax Section’s 2025 National Tax Moot Court Competition, winning Best Oral Argument, Best Brief, and Best Oralist Final Round (tied).

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABA Journal, California Still Considering its Options to Remedy the Flubbed Bar Exam
• Miriam H. Baer (Brooklyn), Taking Integrity Risks Seriously
• Jeffrey Bellin (William & Mary), The High Cost of Law School Casebooks
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), More Commentary On The 2025-26 U.S. News Law School Rankings
• James Ming Chen (Michigan State), Principia Bibliometrica: Modeling Citation and Download Data in Legal Scholarship
• Amaryllis-Chryssi Malegiannaki, Athanasios Chatzopoulos, & Konstantinos Tsagkaridis (Department of Psychology, University of Western, Macedonia), Assessing Judges' Use and Awareness of Cognitive Heuristic Decision-making
• Reuters, Dropping ABA Requirement for Lawyers Is Bad Idea, Law School Association Says

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Next Week’s Tax Workshops

Monday, April 14: Richard Winchester (Brooklyn) will present A Tax Policing Paradox as part of the Columbia Davis Polk & Wardwell Tax Policy Colloquium. If you would like to attend, please contact Michael Love.

Wednesday, April 16: Conor Clarke (Washington University; Google Scholar) will present Apportioned Direct Taxes (with Ari Glogower (Northwestern; Google Scholar)) as part of the Missouri Tax Policy Colloquium. If you would like to attend, please contact David Gamage. 

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2025-26 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Clinical Training Rankings include the clinical training law programs at 185 law schools (the faculty survey had a 54% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Georgetown
2	American
2	NYU
4	Baltimore
4	CUNY
4	Michigan
4	UC-Berkeley
8	Denver
8	Maryland
8	Suffolk
8	Yale
12	Northwestern
12	Rutgers
14	Fordham
14	New Mexico
14	Stanford
14	Tennessee
14	UC-Irvine
19	Columbia
19	District of Columbia
19	Minnesota
19	Northeastern
19	Washington Univ.
24	Brooklyn
24	George Washington
24	Harvard
24	Miami
24	Mitchell | Hamline
24	UCLA
24	UNLV
31	Boston University
31	Cardozo
31	Cornell
31	Duke
31	Howard
31	Loyola-New Orleans
31	Penn
31	Seattle
31	South Carolina
31	Texas
31	Tulane
31	Vanderbilt
43	Albany
43	Boston College
43	Chicago
43	Georgia State
43	Pepperdine
43	St. Thomas (MN)
43	UC Law - SF
43	University of Washington
43	Villanova
43	Wisconsin

2024-25 U.S. News Clinical Law Rankings 

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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AALS Urges States To Retain ABA Law School Accreditation As Requirement To Practice Law

Reuters, Dropping ABA Requirement for Lawyers Is Bad Idea, Law School Association Says:

The Association of American Law Schools urged states to not abandon their requirements that attorneys must graduate from American Bar Association-accredited law schools in order to practice.

The AALS warned in an open letter on Tuesday that eliminating state ABA accreditation rules would weaken public protections and limit law student and lawyer mobility.

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More Commentary On The 2025-26 U.S. News Law School Rankings

Following up on Tuesday's post, 2025-26 U.S. News Law School Peer Reputation Rankings (And Overall Rankings):  Derek Muller (Notre Dame; Google Scholar), Benchmarking Law School Rankings Against Expectations, Performance, and Rankings Tactics:

Whenever the USNWR law school rankings are released, there are typical cries of “how did X school move to Y?” This usually reflects a kind of mental benchmark—schools X ought to be at not-Y but ended up at Y. That could be because there is an expectation that the school should be higher or lower than it is.

We all have expectations, then about where school “should” be. Of course, what USNWR uses for its own methodology does not necessarily reflect one’s expectations.

But schools do change over the years, and there are ways of helping reset some expectations against actual schools’ performance. Likewise, there are rankings-related tactics that some schools use that are largely—or only—explicable in terms of USNWR rankings metric performance, which can also help explains rankings outcomes.

Let’s start with two ways to look at schools’ performance: employment outcomes and peer reputation. Then we’ll look at a third: which schools’ tactics may be helping drive rankings changes.

David Lat (Original Jurisdiction), The 2025 U.S. News Rankings: All Hail The... T17?:

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2025-26 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings

The new 2025-26 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings include the business/corporate law programs at 195 law schools (the faculty survey had a 42% response rate). Here are the Top 50:

Rank	School
1	Harvard
2	Chicago
2	Columbia
2	NYU
5	Penn
5	Stanford
7	UC-Berkeley
8	UCLA
8	Virginia
8	Yale
11	Michigan
12	Duke
12	Georgetown
12	Northwestern
15	Vanderbilt
16	Cornell
16	USC
18	Fordham
18	Texas
20	BYU
20	Minnesota
20	Washington Univ.
23	Emory
23	Florida
23	North Carolina
26	Iowa
26	Notre Dame
28	Boston University
28	Georgia
28	Tennessee
31	George Washington
31	Indiana (Maurer)
31	Tulane
31	UC-Davis
35	Alabama
35	Boston College
35	Brooklyn
35	Ohio State
35	Washington & Lee
35	Wisconsin
41	Arizona State
41	Colorado
41	Florida State
41	George Mason
41	Illinois
41	Miami
41	SMU
41	UC-Irvine
41	Wake Forest
41	William & Mary

2024-25 U.S. News Business/Corporate Law Rankings 

2025-26 U.S. News Specialty Rankings:

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