Position Title
Boochever and Bird Endowed Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality and Distinguished Professor of Law
Ash Bhagwat joined the UC Davis School of Law faculty in 2011. Prior to joining UC Davis, he taught at UC Hastings College of the Law for seventeen years. Bhagwat is the author of The Myth of Rights, published by the Oxford University Press in 2010, and Our Democratic First Amendment, published by Cambridge in 2020, as well as the author of numerous books, articles, and book chapters on a wide variety of subjects, ranging from the structure of constitutional rights, to free speech law, to the California Electricity Crisis. Journals his articles have appeared in include the Yale Law Journal, the Supreme Court Review, the California Law Review, the Administrative Law Review, and the University of Illinois Law Review.
Bhagwat is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he received a B.A. with Honors in History. He is also a graduate of The University of Chicago Law School, where he served as Articles Editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He then completed clerkships with Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, and Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to joining the Hastings faculty, Bhagwat practiced appellate and regulatory law for two years in the Washington, D.C. offices of the Sidley & Austin law firm.
In May of 2011, Governor Jerry Brown appointed Bhagwat to serve on the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator, a public benefit corporation responsible for running the high-voltage electricity grid in California. In 2003, he was awarded the Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence at UC Hastings. Bhagwat is a member of the American Law Institute.
- J.D. University of Chicago Law School, 1990
- B.A. History, summa cum laude, Yale University, 1986, Phi Beta Kappa
- Board of Governors, California Independent System Operator
- Professor of Law, UC Hastings
- Clerkship, Associate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court
- Clerkship, Judge Richard A. Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- Member, American Law Institute
- 2003 Rutter Award for Teaching Excellence
- Administrative Law
- Antitrust
- Constitutional Law
- Energy Law
- Law And Economics
- Regulated Industries
- Supreme Court
- Telecommunications Law
Publications
Books
First Amendment Law: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion, 5th ed. (Carolina Academic Press 2022) (with Arthur D. Hellman, William D. Araiza, and Thomas E. Baker)
Our Democratic First Amendment (Cambridge 2020)
First Amendment Law: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion, 4th ed. (Carolina Academic Press 2018) (with Arthur D. Hellman, William D. Araiza, and Thomas E. Baker)
The Myth of Rights: The Purposes and Limits of Constitutional Rights (Oxford 2010) (paperback edition 2012)
Teacher’s Manual to Stone, Seidman, Sunstein, Tushnet & Karlan, Constitutional Law, 6th ed. (Aspen 2009) (with Mark Tushnet)
Teacher’s Manual to Stone, Seidman, Sunstein, Tushnet & Karlan, Constitutional Law, 5th ed. (Aspen 2005) (with Mark Tushnet)
Teacher’s Manual to Stone, Seidman, Sunstein & Tushnet, Constitutional Law, 4th ed. (Aspen 2001) (with Mark Tushnet)
Book Chapters
The New Gatekeepers?: Social Media and the “Search for Truth” in Gus Hurwitz, Kyle Langvardt and Elana Zeide, eds., Media and Society After Technological Disruption (Cambridge University Press forthcoming 2023)
Justice Kennedy’s Free Speech Optimism in David A. Frank and Francis J. Mootz III, eds., The Rhetoric of Judging Well: The Conflicted Legacy of Justice Anthony M. Kennedy (Penn State University Press 2023)
Freedom of Expression and Democracy in Frederick Schauer and Adrienne Stone, eds., Oxford Handbook on Freedom of Speech (Oxford University Press 2021) (with James Weinstein)
Counter Terrorism Policies and Freedom of Association: International and Comparative Perspectives in Ian Cram, ed., Extremism, Free Speech and Counter-Terrorism Law and Policy (Routledge 2019)
Bad law: How the United States Supreme Court Mishandled the Free Speech Issue in Holder v. Humanitarian Law project in Ian Cram, ed., Extremism, Free Speech and Counter-Terrorism Law and Policy (Routledge 2019) (with James Weinstein)
Free Speech Categories in the Digital Age in Susan J. Brison and Katharine Gelber, ed.s, Free Speech in the Digital Age (Oxford University Press 2019)
The Story of Whitney v. California: The Power of Ideas in Michael C. Dorf, ed., Constitutional Law Stories, 2nd ed. (Foundation 2009)
Affirmative Action and Benign Discrimination in Vikram David Amar and Mark V. Tushnet, eds., Global Perspectives on Constitutional Law (Oxford University Press 2009)
The Story of Whitney v. California: The Power of Ideas in Michael C. Dorf, ed., Constitutional Law Stories (Foundation 2004)
Articles and Published Briefs
The New Gatekeepers?: Social Media and the “Search for Truth”, 3 J. Free Speech L. 41 (2023)
Why Social Media Platforms Are Not Common Carriers, 2 J. Free Speech L. 127 (2022)
Do Platforms Have Editorial Rights?, 1 J. Free Speech L. 97 (2021)
The Law of Facebook, 54 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 2353 (2021)
Crossing Doctrines: Conflating Standing and the Merits Under the Establishment Clause, 97 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1729 (2020)
Judge Johnson and the Kaleidoscopic First Amendment, 71 Ala. L. Rev. 755 (2020)
The Conscience of the Baker: Religion and Compelled Speech, 28 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rt.s J. 287 (2019)
More Speech Everywhere: Justice Kennedy and the Public Forum, 70 Hastings L.J. 1185 (2019)
Candides and Cassandras: Technology and Free Speech on the Roberts Court, 95 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1327 (2018)
When Speech Is Not “Speech,” 78 Ohio St. L. J. 839 (2017)
Free Speech and “A Law of Rules,” 15 First Amendment L. Rev. 159 (2017)
In Defense of Content Regulation, 102 Iowa L. Rev. 1427 (2017)
Calvin Massey: Gentleman and Scholar, 15 U.N.H. L. Rev. 265 (2017)
The Democratic First Amendment, 110 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1097 (2016)
Liberty or Equality?, 20 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 381 (2016)
Posner, Blackstone, and Prior Restraints on Speech, 2015 BYU L. Rev. 1151
Free Speech Without Democracy, 49 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 59 (2015)
Producing Speech, 56 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1029 (2015)
Reed v. Town of Gilbert: Signs of (Dis)Content?, 9 N.Y.U. J. L. & Liberty 137 (2015)
Religious Associations: Hosanna-Tabor and the Instrumental Value of Religious Groups, 92 Wash. U. L. Rev. 73 (2014)
Truthiness: Corporate Public Figures and the Problem of Harmful Truths, 99 Minn. L. Rev. 297 (2014)
Terrorism and Associations, 63 Emory L.J. 581 (2014)
Justice Kennedy’s Free Speech Jurisprudence: A Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis, 44 McGeorge L. Rev. 167 (2013) (with Matthew Struhar)
Details: Specific Facts and the First Amendment, 86 S. Cal. L. Rev. 1 (2012)
Liberty’s Refuge, or the Refuge of Scoundrels?: The Limits of the Right of Assembly, 89 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1381 (2012)
Sorrell v. IMS Health: Details, Detailing, and the Death of Privacy, 36 Vt. L. Rev. 855 (2012)
Associations and Forums: Situating CLS v. Martinez, 38 Hastings Con. L. Q. 543 (2011)
Associational Speech, 120 Yale L.J. 978 (2011)
A Brief History of the Commercial Speech Doctrine (With Some Implications for Tobacco Regulation), 2 Hastings Science & Technology L. J. 103 (2010)
Wyeth v. Levine and Agency Preemption: More Muddle, or Creeping to Clarity?, 45 Tulsa L. Rev. 197 (2009)
Cooper v. Aaron and the Faces of Federalism, 52 St. Louis U. L.J. 1087 (2008)
The Test That Ate Everything: Intermediate Scrutiny in First Amendment Jurisprudence, 2007 U. Ill. L. Rev. 783
Brief of Constitutional Law Professors, David L. Faigman and Ashutosh A. Bhagwat, et al., as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondents in Gonzales v. Carhart and Gonzales v. Planned Parenthood, Nos. 05-380, 05-1382 (Introduction and Published Brief to United States Supreme Court), 34 Hastings Con. L. Q. 69 (2006) (with David L. Faigman and Kathryn M. Davis)
What If I Want My Kids to Watch Pornography?: Protecting Children from “Indecent” Speech, 11 Wm. & Mary Bill of Rt.s J. 671 (2003)
Institutions and Long Term Planning: Lessons from the California Electricity Crisis, 55 Admin. L. Rev. 95 (2003)
Cloning and Federalism, 53 Hastings L.J. 1133 (2002)
Affirmative Action and Compelling Interests: Equal Protection Jurisprudence at the Crossroads, 4 U. Penn. J. Con. L. 260 (2002)
Injury Without Harm: Texas v. Lesage and the Strange World of Article III Injuries, 28 Hastings Con. L. Q. 445 (2001)
Parking at BART, or Economics and Its Discontents, 4 Green Bag 2d 7 (2000)
Separate But Equal?: The Supreme Court, the Lower Federal Courts, and the Nature of the “Judicial Power,” 80 B.U. L. Rev. 967 (2000)
Unnatural Competition?: Applying the New Antitrust Learning to Foster Competition in the Local Exchange, 50 Hastings L.J. 1479 (1999)
Modes of Regulatory Enforcement and the Problem of Administrative Discretion, 50 Hastings L.J. 1275 (1999)
The McCleskey Puzzle: Remedying Prosecutorial Discrimination Against Black Victims in Capital Sentencing, 1998 S. Ct. Rev. 111 (with Evan Tsen Lee)
Hard Cases and the (D)Evolution of Constitutional Doctrine, 30 Conn. L. Rev. 961 (1998)
Purpose Scrutiny in Constitutional Analysis, 85 Cal. L. Rev. 297 (1997)
Three-Branch Monte, 72 Notre Dame L. Rev. 157 (1996)
Of Markets and Media: The First Amendment, the New Mass Media, and the Political Components of Culture, 74 N.C. L. Rev. 141 (1995)
Book Reviews
Assembly Resurrected (reviewing Liberty’s Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly by John D. Inazu), 91 Tex. L. Rev. 351 (2012)
Book Review (reviewing Bush v. Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy by Charles L. Zelden), 27 Law & History Rev. 715 (2009)
One Nation Color-Blind (reviewing One Nation Indivisible: How Ethnic Separatism Threatens America, by J. Harvie Wilkinson, III), 1 Green Bag 2d 105 (1997)
Shorter Pieces and Encyclopedia Entries
Technology, Analogies, and Legal Reasoning, Marquette Lawyer (Summer, 2023)
Why State Censorship Still Matters, Indian Journal of Law and Technology (April 2, 2023)
The Impact of 9/11 on Freedom of Expression in the United States, Verfassungsblog on Matters Constitutional (January 31, 2022)
Trump’s Lawsuits Against Social Media Will Fail, But They Highlight Serious Concerns, Australian Outlook (July 29, 2021)
Kennedy: A Most Strident Moderate, Daily Journal 7 (June 20, 2018)
Searching for Safe Spaces, Inside Higher Ed (March 21, 2017), available at https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/03/21/easily-caricatured-safe-spaces-can-help-students-learn-essay (with John Inazu)
Banning Trademarks Called Offensive Violates Free Speech, New York Times Room for Debate (May 4, 2016), available at http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2016/05/04/redskins-and-other-troubling-trademarks
Replacing Scalia: Uncertainty is the Enemy of Justice (Feb. 4, 2016), available at http://www.newsweek.com/replacing-scalia-uncertainty-enemy-justice-430002
More Flexible First Amendment Approach is Needed, Daily Journal 7 (July 1, 2015)
Elonis v. United States, What is a Threat?, Daily Journal 7 (October 13, 2014)
Content Matters . . . Or Does It?, Daily Journal 7 (July 24, 2014)
Public Prayer: Between a Rock and . . ., Daily Journal 7 (May 12, 2014)
Hobby Lobby/Citizens United analogies inherently flawed, Daily Journal 7 (April 11, 2014)
Heckler’s Vetoes in High Schools, Jurist (March 7, 2014), available at http://jurist.org/forum/2014/03/ashutosh-bhagwat-heckler-vetoes.php
Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District/Meredith v. Jefferson County Schools in Vikram Amar et al., eds., Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan 2008)
Miller v. California in Vikram Amar et al., eds., Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan 2008)
Bartnicki v. Vopper in Vikram Amar et al., eds., Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan 2008)
Burson v. Freeman in Paul Finkelman, ed., Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties (Routledge 2006)