Author: Paul Caron
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Eyal & Soled: Eliminate the Gambling Loss Tax Deduction
Mirit Eyal (Alabama) & Jay A. Soled Rutgers, Eliminate the Gambling Loss Tax Deduction, 190 Tax Notes Fed. 2029 (Mar. 23, 2026): To some, gambling is an exciting and joyful activity — an opportunity to beat the odds and prove one’s savviness or luck. To others, gambling is nothing less than a pure vice that,
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The Atlantic: The Evidence That God Exists
The Atlantic: The Evidence That God Exists, by Elizabeth Bruenig (B.A. Brandeis; M.Phil. Christian Theology, Cambridge): I grew up in a faithful Methodist household in deep-red Texas during the George W. Bush years, when the political sway of evangelicals was at its zenith. At the same time, evangelists of a robust atheism—figures such as the biologist
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NY Times: Is There a Religious Revival in America?
New York Times Op-Ed: Is There a Religious Revival in America?, by Ross Douthat (Author, Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious (2025)): In the early 2020s, secularization stopped: After rising for 15 years, the nonreligious share of the American population suddenly stopped growing. Ever since, there’s been a vigorous debate over whether this plateau is a precursor to religious
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Harvard Faith & Veritas 2026: Standing in the Gap
Harvard Faith & Veritas 2026: Standing in the Gap (March 26-29): A University-Wide Gathering of Harvard’s Christian Alumni: Our vision: A rich community of faith leveraging excellence in our expertise, faithfulness in our calling, integrity in our character, and love in our actions to address society’s needs. Law Prof speakers:
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Law Firms Hire Fewer Black Summer Associates Due to Pressure From Conservatives
Bloomberg Law, Black Law Interns In Decline Under Pressure From Conservatives: The share of Black summer associates at US law firms shrank to its lowest level in more than a decade against the backdrop of a conservative push to end race- and gender-based preferences in school admissions and hiring, including a specific effort against legal
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OnlyFans, More Than Taxpayers: Toward a Compliance Aesthetic in the Gig Economy
Bridget J. Crawford (Pace), OnlyFans, More Than Taxpayers: Toward a Compliance Aesthetic in the Gig Economy: This Article examines how creators on the subscription-based platform OnlyFans understand and navigate their federal tax obligations, with particular attention to peer-to-peer advice shared in publicly accessible online forums. As independent contractors, OnlyFans creators must track income, manage expenses, and
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Diversifying Law School Faculties
Brian T. Fitzpatrick (Vanderbilt), Diversifying the Academy: I have been a member of the law faculty at Vanderbilt University for nearly twenty years. Even though my faculty has grown over that time, there are fewer conservatives now than when I joined. We are down to four—a mere ten percent or so of the tenure-track faculty—and
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Alvin Warren’s Tax Oeuvre
Jasper L. Cummings, Jr. (Alston & Bird, Raleigh, NC), Alvin Warren’s Writings, 190 Tax Notes 1469 (Mar. 3, 2026): Practitioners routinely ignore, or are not exposed to, so-called academic articles on tax. Usually it doesn’t matter because academic articles are seldom useful in practice. Occasionally, an appellate brief making a constitutional argument will cite one. But
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The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness
The Free Press: Why Your ‘Perfect’ Life Feels So Empty, by Arthur Brooks (Harvard) (Author, The Meaning of Your Life: Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness (2026)): I’ve spent most of my career around some of the most accomplished young people in the world. What I’ve found is that they are undeniably, desperately, incorrigibly
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Steven Pinker & Ross Douthat: The God Debate
The Free Press, Debate: Do We Need God?: Hosting a debate about God in 2026 might seem like a strange thing to do. … For years, intellectuals predicted that as religion receded, society would become calmer, more rational, and more scientific. Shed religious superstition, the theory went, and we would inherit a more enlightened public
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James Talarico, Liberal Protestants, and Evangelicals
Following up on my previous post, Can Texas Senate Candidate James Talarico Reclaim Christianity for the Left? (New York Times): Dispatch Faith: The Real Difference Between Evangelicals and Liberal Protestants, by Daniel K. Williams (Ashland University; Author, Politics of the Cross: A Christian Alternative to Partisanship (2021)): Evangelicals and liberal Protestants badly misunderstand each other.
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California Could be First State to Require Law Schools to Teach AI
Reuters, California Could be First State to Make Law Schools Teach AI: California-accredited law schools could soon be required to train students on artificial intelligence technology and how to use AI tools responsibly. The State Bar of California’s Committee of Bar Examiners on Friday discussed adding “the competent use, capabilities, and limitations of technology and
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Virginia Tax Review Publishes New Issue
The Virginia Tax Review has published Vol. 45, No. 1 (Summer 2025):
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Updated ABA Bar Data: 1-Year Pass Rate Increased 1 Percentage Point; 6 Law Schools Failed 2-Year 75% Pass Rate Accreditation Threshold
Update: The University of Baltimore School of Law let me know after last week’s post that they had submitted incorrect ultimate bar passage data to the ABA showing them falling short of the 75% accreditation threshold. Baltimore has sent me corrected data showing them meeting the 75% threshold. The ABA uploaded the corrected data on
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Geographic Inequality and the SALT Deduction
Matthew S. Johnson (Cravath, New York) & Gladriel Shobe (BYU), Geographic Inequality and the SALT Deduction, 2026 U. Ill. L. Rev. 107: The state and local tax (“SALT”) deduction remains one of the most hotly contested issues in federal tax policy. Much of the SALT debate has been driven by politics rather than empirical analysis,
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NY Times: What Is The Argument For Believing In God?
New York Times Book Review: What Is the Argument for Believing in God?, by Timothy Egan (reviewing Christopher Beha, Why I Am Not an Atheist: The Confessions of a Skeptical Believer (2026)): Christopher Beha’s long and winding road from well-read atheist to even better-read Christian begins with a compelling image: An angel appears to him. Not
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Suffering Is Part Of The Christian Job Description
Christianity Today: Revival Begins with Suffering, Not Celebrity, by Luke Geraty (reviewing Craig Keener (Asbury Theological Seminary), Suffering: Its Meaning for the Spirit-Filled Life (2025)): I remember the first time I heard Craig Keener speak. The world-renowned scholar had recently published Miracles, a two-volume work providing a philosophical, biblical, and experiential case for the supernatural
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Kindness Is Not Optional
Dispatch Faith: Kindness Is Not Optional, by Karen Swallow Prior: The New Testament invokes an apt metaphor when it commands Christians to “clothe” ourselves with kindness. To be clothed in something suggests a quality that is both felt by the wearer and seen by others. Kindness is like this: It resides inside a person but is outwardly visible.
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Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Resources
Following up on my previous posts: In the current 2025-26 methodology, resources count 7% in the overall ranking: Student-faculty ratio (5%): This is the ratio of law school students to law school faculty members for the 2023 to 2024 school year. It is a proxy for the amount of attention from faculty that may be available
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Liu & Zhang: Tariffs And The Progressive Fiscal Constitution
Lawrence J. Liu (Stanford) & Alex Zhang (Emory), Tariffs and the Progressive Fiscal Constitution, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. ___ (2026): For more than a century, progressive taxation has constituted the American fiscal state. A resurgent and expanding tariff regime, however, threatens that commitment to progressive distribution. Given the ongoing popularity of tariffs, this Article
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New ABA Bar Data: 1-Year Pass Rate Increased 1 Percentage Point; 7 Law Schools Failed 2-Year 75% Pass Rate Accreditation Threshold
Update: The University of Baltimore School of Law emailed to let me know they had submitted incorrect ultimate bar passage data to the ABA showing them falling short of the 75% accreditation and send me corrected data showing them meeting the 75% threshold. The ABA uploaded the corrected data on March 22 and I have
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Schizer & Calabresi: Wealth Taxes Under The Constitution — An Originalist Analysis
David M. Schizer (Columbia) & Steven G. Calabresi (Northwestern), Wealth Taxes Under the Constitution: An Originalist Analysis, 77 Fla. L. Rev. 1401 (2025): A federal wealth tax is high on the wish list of progressives, but is it constitutional? This Article shows that under the original public meaning of the Constitution, a wealth tax is
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2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings
U.S. News & World Report, Coming Soon: Law Schools, Business Schools and Other Graduate Programs: U.S. News will formally release the 2026 edition of Best Graduate Schools on April 7. The updated rankings include school profiles and search tools for prospective doctoral, master’s and J.D. students in the areas announced last year [“Law (J.D.): Overall, Part-Time,
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Finding the Good Life in a World of High Achievers Through My Daughter With Down Syndrome
Dispatch Faith: Finding the Good Life in an Age of Designer Babies and High Achievers, by Amy Julia Becker: When our daughter Penny was born, I was a student at Princeton Seminary. I stumbled through the basic Greek of the New Testament and enjoyed the hours of theological debate over concepts like atonement and salvation
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If There Is No God: The Battle Over Who Defines Good and Evil
The Free Press: Right and Wrong Are Not a Matter of Personal Opinion, by Dennis Prager (Author, If There Is No God: The Battle Over Who Defines Good and Evil (2026)): The great moral tragedy of our time is that feelings have replaced values. And they shouldn’t. Feelings are beautiful. Feelings are wonderful. It’s good