ABA Journal

Chemerinsky: Breaking down the issues in the birthright citizenship case

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in one of the most high-profile cases of the term, Trump v. Barbara, a challenge to President Donald Trump’s executive order limiting birthright citizenship. The executive order, issued Jan. 20, 2025, provides that only those born to citizens or green card holders are United States citizens. As the solicitor general says in the petitoners' brief: “In short, the order does not recognize children of illegal aliens or temporarily present aliens as citizens by birth.”

Apr 2, 2026 9:09 AM CDT

Rethinking the Legal Talent Pipeline: Why convenience is costing firms opportunity

I spend my days thinking about talent. Not in the abstract and not as a talking point but in the very real sense of who gets hired, who advances, who quietly exits and why. Over the years, I have watched law firms wrestle with the same questions again and again: how to identify excellence, how to remain competitive, and how to adapt to a workforce that looks and thinks differently from what it was even a decade ago.

Apr 1, 2026 12:18 PM CDT

Stolen Treasures: A lawyer and a Holocaust survivor help families find items that Nazis seized decades ago

Sometimes when they are working together at her home, Detroit attorney Jonathan Schwartz brings the deli food while Holocaust survivor Clara Garbon-Radnoti smokes maybe a cigarette or two. For almost two decades, Garbon-Radnoti has been translating documents contained in over 180 digitized, searchable microfilm reels with more than 160,000 frames that were donated to the Zekelman Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Apr 1, 2026 1:50 AM CDT

Exodus: Thousands of federal lawyers left their jobs by choice or by force in 2025

A political party shift in the White House traditionally doesn’t change much for career government lawyers. But the second President Donald Trump administration issued directives that some lawyers who worked in federal government say they couldn’t follow for ethical reasons.

Apr 1, 2026 1:45 AM CDT

250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Some 250 years ago, a group of colonists set about to create change. While hailed as one of the most significant documents in history, the Declaration of Independence was at its core a 27-count indictment against the king of England and a call for application of our natural rights to self-governance. The declaration outlined the various acts and behaviors that infringed on the “unalienable rights.” Before the Second Continental Congress could vote on independence, there was debate. Were they going to fight for rights as British citizens, or were they going to fight for independence from Great Britain?

Apr 1, 2026 1:40 AM CDT

Letters From Our Readers: Courting AI

In Amanda Robert’s “May It Please the Court” (Winter 2026, page 10), explaining why judges may utilize AI for proofing and editing but never for decision-making, Louisiana’s Judge Scott Schlegel said: “It’s part of the social contract—you want a human being struggling through the difficulties of a case and making a decision, not a bot.”

Apr 1, 2026 1:35 AM CDT

Indiana is looking at expanding nonlawyer practice and developing nonprofit firms

Attorney shortages are occurring all over the country. In one state, leaders of a commission tasked with addressing the problem say the solution isn’t simply more lawyers but a complete overhaul of how it provides legal services.

Apr 1, 2026 1:30 AM CDT

Law librarians embrace AI and vow not to be replaced by it

Law librarians are pushing back on the idea that generative artificial intelligence will eventually replace them. If anything, they have become more relevant as they test and promote new AI-based tools for government, law schools and law firms.

Apr 1, 2026 1:25 AM CDT

Millions of Americans continue to lack meaningful access to justice. What can be done about it?

Every day, millions of Americans confront legal challenges—family disputes, housing and job issues, estate claims and more. Yet for far too many, the justice system feels out of reach. The reason is simple but devastating: Professional legal help costs more than they can afford.

Apr 1, 2026 1:20 AM CDT

In legal writing, don’t make readers reassemble the timeline

Lawyers often make their prose harder to follow than it needs to be. One of the worst culprits is time-toggling—those unannounced leaps from present to past, from recent to remote, from actual to hypothetical.

Apr 1, 2026 1:15 AM CDT

How can lawyers be sure clients understand what they’re saying?

Jenny Bradley, owner of Triangle Smart Divorce in Cary, North Carolina, says lawyers can miss some important clues that their clients are struggling to understand the advice they are getting.

Apr 1, 2026 1:10 AM CDT

Noted ABA member’s rejection from the Supreme Court in 1930 still resonates today

The genesis for my latest book, Supreme Pressure: The Rejection of John J. Parker and Birth of the Modern Supreme Court Confirmation Process grew out my long-held fascination with the U.S. Supreme Court. I wanted to learn more about Parker’s 1930 rejection—a nomination that, at first glance, seemed like a political masterstroke for President Herbert Hoover.

Apr 1, 2026 1:05 AM CDT

In 2016, the ABA Journal debuted 10 Questions. A decade later, we catch up with a few subjects.

For the past 10 years, Jenny B. Davis has written an ABA Journal column called 10 Questions, where she interviews some of the most interesting attorneys working today to ask them about their practice, about their passions and about what makes them remarkable. To commemorate the anniversary, Davis caught up with 10 interview subjects to find out what they’ve been doing since they last talked.

Apr 1, 2026 1:00 AM CDT

California joins other states in restricting cat declawing

In the latest knuckle down on cat declawing, California this year joins five other states and Washington, D.C., in banning the surgical procedure for nonmedical reasons.

Apr 1, 2026 12:55 AM CDT

Biography examines the career of a New Yorker and single mom who went to law school in the 1970s

In Passion and Power: A Life in Three Worlds, Harriet Newman Cohen chronicles her journey as a divorce lawyer whose clients have included actor Laurence Fishburne, actress Linda Lavin and other celebrities.

Apr 1, 2026 12:50 AM CDT