Things to Read This Week 4/6/26

Reflections on Robert Jackson’s The Federal Prosecutor over at the HLR forum — one piece by Hagan Scotten (of “But it was never going to be me” fame); and one by Michael Dreeben (of, well, too many things to name fame).

The Law of Certiorari, another(!) one from Tyler Lindley: “When Congress initially granted the Court discretionary certiorari power, it did so against the backdrop of common-law constraints on judges’ discretion to issue or deny the writ. Indeed, the legislative history explicitly acknowledges these common-law rules, suggesting that Congress was aware of and intended to impose meaningful limits on the Court’s certiorari discretion.”

“Subject to the Jurisdiction” as Legal Text, by Keith Whittington and James Heilpern. “Drawing on mid-nineteenth-century legal and legislative sources, the Article demonstrates that "subject to the jurisdiction" was a conventional legal term of art signifying that an individual was within the governing authority and protection of the sovereign. The Article concludes that the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment reinforces a broad, territorial rule of birthright citizenship that is independent of parental allegiance or immigration status.”