Joshua Braver
Assistant Professor of Law
Contact
joshua.braver@wisc.edu
975 Bascom Mall, Law Building, Madison, WI, USA, 53706-1399
Education
B.A., University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D., Yale Department of Political Science
J.D., Yale Law School
Biography
Joshua Braver’s primary interests lie at the intersection of constitutional law and political theory. His research mines the rich normative debates of past constitutional conflicts to construct limiting principles for moments when law’s boundaries must be pushed, stretched or violated. His current project provides the first comprehensive and conceptual overview of all seven changes to the Supreme Court’s size in light of recent controversies about court-packing. His book project, forthcoming from Oxford University Press and entitled “We, the Mediated People: Populist Constitution-making in Contemporary South America,” examines constitutional assemblies' rebellions against their governing rules, rules that were set by legislatures and are enforced by judiciaries. His work is published or forthcoming in the Boston College Law Journal, the Georgetown Journal of International Law, the International Journal of Constitutional Law, among others. He has also written for more popular outlets such as The Atlantic Monthly, Politico, Lawfare, Dissent, and Talking Points Memo.
Joshua received a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley and graduated as the Valedictorian of the Political Science Class. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his Ph.D in political science from Yale University. Prior to joining the UW faculty, Joshua worked as a Civic Studies Fellow at Tufts University and then as a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School.
Scholarship & Publications
SSRN
Law Repository
Activities
Sumudu Atapattu, Joshua Braver, Heinz Klug and Mark Sidel spoke on global perspectives on civic health at the UW-Madison Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies conference on civic health on April 16, 2024.
Joshua Braver comments on court-packing testimony, expands on findings from his article, in a September 2021 post on the Volokh Conspiracy. Read the article.
Joshua Braver gave an online talk in December, "The Myth of Recurrent Court-Packing." The talk was based on the article Braver wrote for the newly-launched blog, The Constitutionalist.
News & Media
Thursday, Jun 13, 2024Joshua Braver on The Constitutional Case Against Exclusionary Zoning
The AtlanticMonday, Aug 29, 2022Joshua Braver: 'The Court's Liberals Still Have Power'
The AtlanticWednesday, Jan 19, 2022Joshua Braver comments on sedition charges for Capitol attack
ReutersThursday, May 6, 2021Joshua Braver: The Justice Department Shouldn't Open the Pandora's Box of Seditious Conspiracy
LawfareTuesday, Feb 9, 2021Joshua Braver discusses court packing
SCOTUSBlogWednesday, Oct 21, 2020Joshua Braver weighs in on the 'court packing' debate
WORT-FMFriday, Oct 9, 2020Joshua Braver discusses the historical precedents behind court-packing
VoxMonday, Oct 5, 2020Three constitutional law scholars join UW Law faculty