Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Books
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Thorndike reviews Williamson’s “The Price of Democracy”
Joseph Thorndike (Tax Analysts) has a new review of Vanessa Williams’s (Brookings) new book The Price of Democracy in this week’s Tax Notes. Here is the intro: Most histories of American democracy start with voting rights or constitutional design. But Vanessa Williamson begins with a different focus: She wants to know who’s picking up the…
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Charlie Kirk’s Final Message to America: Stop, In the Name of God
Charlie Kirk finished writing a book on the Sabbath months before he was murdered. This book discusses the importance of observing the Sabbath—and why rest might heal our country.
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NY Times: Christmas and the Resilience of Religious Doubt
Christmas and the resilience of religious doubt
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Book of the Week
My Northeastern colleague, Professor of Law and Biology Jonathan Kahn has penned a fascinating exploration of how the concept of diversity (often racial diversity) has unwittingly contributed to the perpetuation of biological conceptions of race in a variety of settings: The Uses of Diversity (Columbia Univ. Press. 2025) His analysis is far more penetrating, but…
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Legal History Awards
University of Miami Professor of Law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, Kunal M. Parker has been awarded the John Phillip Reed Book Award by the American Society for Legal History, for his monograph The Turn to Process: American Legal, Political, and Economic Thought, 1870–1970 (Cambridge University Press, 2024). The full list of this year’s awards is here: https://aslh.net/aslh-book-prize-winners-2025/
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How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life
How Church Could (Literally) Save Your Life introduces skeptics to data, invites them to church, and finally guides them toward the one by whose wounds we are healed—no pills, planks, or apps required.
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DREAM Act Reintroduced in Congress
This week, another version of the DREAM Act was introduced in the U.S. Congress. Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) introduced the bill, which would create a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. The law likely would ease access for immigrant students to higher education. It also a…
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Book of the Week
This one’s a couple of years old, but it’s so well done, I couldn’t skip it. For a profound diagnosis of what ails America and the West, I suggest The Twilight of the American State by Pierre Schlag, University Distinguished Professor and Byron R. White Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. You can…
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Osofsky Presents “Automated Agencies,” Co-Authored with Blank, at UNC Law Book Launch
Leigh Osofsky (North Carolina; Google Scholar) presents Automated Agencies: The Transformation of Government Guidance (Cambridge Univ. Press 2025), co-authored with Joshua Blank (UC–Irvine; Google Scholar), at a UNC Law book launch event on November 21, 2025: Speaking at a book release event on November 21, Osofsky detailed findings from Automated Agencies: The Transformation of Government Guidance. Federal agencies…
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Book of the Week
Robert Hockett, Edward Cornell Professor of Law at Cornell Law School has penned an exciting new book offering the rarest commodity in our profession: an insightful new approach to topics we thought we already understood. The book, A Republic of Producers, is due out this January from Yale University Press and is receiving stellar pre-publication…
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Book of the Week
This magisterial history by University of Michigan Professor Michelle Adams, is due out in paperback in January 2026. The Containment tells the story of how the battle to desegregate the schools was effectively derailed via the Supreme Court’s decision in Milliken v. Bradley. Readers need look no further to discover why scholarship matters. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374250423/thecontainment/
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Book of the Week
This week, I recommend Sharing Risk by Boston College, Liberty Mutual Professor of Law, Patricia McCoy. Just out this summer, Sharing Risk offers an extraordinarily thoughtful articulation of current government policies aimed at helping ordinary Americans afford not only life’s minimal necessities but also adequate health care, owing a home, going to college, and a…
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Book of the Week
One of the great legal historians of the late 20th century (and one of my favorite teachers) is out this year with a landmark contribution for the 21st. Morton J. Horwitz’s 2025 informative and insightful book The Warren Court and the Democratic Constitution builds on his earlier work using newly available documents detailing internal Court…
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David Cay Johnston Reviews The Second Estate, by Ray Madoff
David Cay Johnston has reviewed The Second Estate: How the Tax Code Made an American Aristocracy (2025), by Ray Madoff (Boston College) in the Washington Monthly. Here are the first few paragraphs of the review (“How America’s Tax Code Built an Aristocracy“):
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Infanti presents “The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America” today at Pepperdine
Anthony Infanti (Pittsburgh) presents his book, The Human Toll: Taxation and Slavery in Colonial America, today at Pepperdine, as part of its Tax Policy Workshop Series: How the thirteen colonies deployed the power of taxation to support, promote, and perpetuate the institution of slavery
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Book of the Week
No better way to end the work week than with a recent title written by one of our law professor colleagues or just so insightful it deserves a shout out. This week’s selection, my first, was released this month and fittingly is about tax law. It’s by Boston College Law Professor Ray Madoff and sports…
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Christian Perspectives on the Role of the State, Justice, and Taxation
Springer has released a new edited volume, with several chapters written by law professors: Christian Perspectives on the Role of the State, Justice, and Taxation (van Brederode, ed. 2025). This book examines the historical and ongoing influence of Christian ethical thought on taxation, governance, and distributive justice. Building on themes introduced in Political Philosophy and…
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Pepperdine Hosts Junior Tax Scholars Writing Retreat
Pepperdine Caruso Law was delighted to host a group of junior tax professors last week for a winter writing retreat: Luis Calderon-Gomez (Cardozo), Conor Clarke (Washington University), Maynard Goldburn (Indiana-Kelley Business School), Nyamagaga Gondwe (Wisconsin), Luke Maher (Seattle), Jeesoo Nam (USC), Deanna Newton (Pepperdine), and Alex Zhang (Emory). The only bummer: I was at the…
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Brooklyn Hosts A Book Talk And Discussion Today On For-Profit Philanthropy
Brooklyn hosts a hybrid Book Talk and Discussion with Dana Brakman Reiser (Brooklyn; Google Scholar) and Steven A. Dean (Brooklyn), featuring Anne-Marie Slaughter (CEO, New America; Professor Emerita, Princeton University) on For-Profit Philanthropy: Elite Power & the Threat of Limited Liability Companies, Donor-Advised Funds, & Strategic Corporate Giving (Oxford University Press 2023) today at 6:00…
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Tax Policy Center Hosts Program Today on Federal Budget Politics and the Next President
The Tax Policy Center hosts a program today on Red Ink and Bad Blood: What Do Federal Budget Politics Mean for the Next President and You? (webcast here): Fiscal cliff. Taxmaggedon. Debt default. The Great Recession. Political gridlock. Sequestration. The making — or unmaking — of the federal budget is at play with each of…
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Tax Analysts Offers Tax e-Code & Regs
Tax Analysts has released an Internal Revenue e-Code & Regs. From the press release: “With our e-book, tax professionals will no longer have to dig through a printed book or even tap the Internet,” said Christopher E. Bergin, Tax Analysts president and publisher. “Our e-book will enable them to keep the information they need at their…
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Above the Law Reviews Dan Shaviro’s Novel
I previously blogged (here and here) the new novel by Tax Prof Daniel N. Shaviro (NYU), Getting It (iUniverse, 2010). Above the Law today hsa a review of the book along with an interview with Dan. Here is the opening: If you’re the type who is convinced that the people you work with in Biglaw are evil, conniving,…
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Hickman & Hill: Concepts, Categories, and Compliance in the Regulatory State
Kristin E. Hickman (Minnesota) & Claire A. Hill (Minnesota) have published Concepts, Categories, and Compliance in the Regulatory State, 94 Minn. L. Rev. 1151 (2010). Here is the abstract: Law is, of course, always a product of its history. But for some regimes, history matters both more and differently than for others. In some instances, the requirements…
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LexisNexis Publishes Regulation of Tax Practice
On behalf of LexisNexis and the Graduate Tax Series Board of Editors (Ellen Aprill (Loyola-L.A.), Elliott Manning (Miami), Philip Postlewaite (Northwestern) & David Richardson (Florida)), I am delighted to announced the publication of Regulation of Tax Practice, by Linda Galler (Hofstra) & Michael B. Lang (Chapman). The Graduate Tax Series is the first and only…
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Weisbach & Posner: Climate Change Justice
Tax Prof David Weisbach (Chicago) & Eric A. Posner (Chicago) have published Climate Change Justice (Princeton University Press, 2010). Here is the abstract: Climate change and justice are so closely associated that many people take it for granted that a global climate treaty should–indeed, must–directly address both issues together. But, in fact, this would be a serious mistake, one…