With August around the corner, the Blog is officially on hiatus until the new school year. But before we hit the beach (library) and catch some rays (plan our fall schedule), let us share our most read posts of 2026 so far, say a fond farewell to our departing student editors, and welcome three new additions to the team.
Our Most Popular Posts of the Year So Far
They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. But if you find yourself pining for LPE content during the dog days of summer, you can revisit some of our most loved posts from the year to date.
10. Guilt by Solidarity – Zohra Ahmed
The conviction of Anti-ICE protestors on terrorism charges represents a dangerous new front in the Trump administration’s war against the left. Yet it also highlights a longer history: over the past several decades, legislatures and courts have enacted a form of guilt by association that is antithetical to collective political action.
9. Landlord Distress Isn’t Our Fault, But It Is Our Problem – Ruthy Gourevitch & Jacob Udell
Ruthy Gourevitch Jacob Udell explain why landlords nationwide are scrambling to repay their investors, and why confronting this growing financial distress is the first step toward solving our national housing nightmare.
8. The Shakedown – Dylan Saba
The overt gangsterfication of US foreign policy, formalized through the so-called “Board of Peace,” marks the culmination of a dangerous transformation in the nature of American hegemony.
7. Two Dogmas of LPE Critics – Amy Kapczynski
Is LPE scholarship anti-empirical? Has contemporary law and economics become a neutral social science? Don’t believe everything you hear in Chicago.
6. The Economics That Law and Economics Ignores – Madison Condon, Luke Herrine
A valuable overview of the non-neoclassical economics that LPE scholarship draws upon.
5. Immigration Agencies Are Openly Defying Federal Courts – Nathan Yaffe
Hundreds of federal judges have ruled against the Trump Administration’s radical expansion of mandatory detention. Yet ICE continues to arrest and detain tens of thousands of people each month, effectively nullifying judicial oversight through sheer scale.
4. Whistling at the Edge of Law – Emmanuel Mauleón
A reflection on the situation in Minnesota, what it tells us about the law, and how the legal community should respond
3. What Would a Russell Vought of the Left Look Like? – Beau Baumann
If we are to realize the dream of post-Trump reconstruction, policy reform will not be enough. We must articulate a constitutional politics capable of dismantling both juristocracy and the modern managerial presidency.
2. Muskism as Fordism – Ben Tarnoff & Quinn Slobodian
Drawing on the Regulation School, Ben Tarnoff and Quinn Slobodian consider what social settlement is being offered alongside Big Tech’s regime of accumulation.
1. The Means-Testing Industrial Complex – Luke Farrell
Means-testing and administrative complexity have turned America’s safety net into a lucrative revenue stream for private contractors, underscoring the need for public data infrastructure and simpler eligibility rules.
Cha-Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes
Turn and face the strange. This summer, we say a fond farewell to our student editors. Liz Brown, who has been keeping you informed about consumer protection, tenant organizing, eviction court, unfair labor practices, tax policy, progressive policy visions for the future, and much else, has recently received her JD from YLS and MPA from Princeton. She will soon be working somewhere (hire her!) in policy and politics. Eve Zelickson, who has been covering corporate consolidation in health care, personalized pricing, media capture and conglomeration, artificial intelligence, and sundry other topics, has recently received her JD from NYU Law. This coming year, she will be practicing Medicaid law as a Skadden Fellow at the Community Service Society of New York.
To help this ship of Theseus stay afloat, we have also brought aboard three student editors. Sarena Martinez, a rising 3L at YLS, will be covering our labor, health, market governance beats; Esteban Mendoza, a rising 3L at YLS, will be taking on antitrust, criminal law reform, and legal and political theory; and Brian Reyes, a rising 3L at YLS and PhD student in Yale’s History Department, will be keeping up with banking and finance, corporate law, and community development.
