Articles
Government Immunity
Municipal Immunity, Virginia Law Review (forthcoming 2023)
Backdoor Municipal Immunity, 132 Yale L.J. Forum (Oct. 14, 2022)
Qualified Immunity’s Boldest Lie, 88 U. Chicago L. Rev. 605 (2021)
Qualified Immunity and Federalism All the Way Down, 109 Georgetown Law Journal 305 (2020)
After Qualified Immunity, 120 Columbia L. Rev. 309 (2020)
Qualified Immunity’s Selection Effects, 114 Northwestern University Law Review 1101 (2020)
The Case Against Qualified Immunity, 93 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1797 (2018)
How Qualified Immunity Fails, 127 Yale L.J. 2 (2017)
Civil Rights Litigation & Police Accountability
An urgent and definitive examination of how the legal system prevents accountability for police misconduct, from one of the country's leading scholars on policing.
Lexipol's Fight Against Police Reform (with Ingrid V. Eagly), 97 Ind. L.J. 1 (2022)
New Federalism and Civil Rights Enforcement (with James E. Pfander and Alexander A. Reinert), 116 Nw. U. L. Rev. 737 (2021)
Civil Rights Ecosystems, 114 Michigan L. Rev. 1539 (2020)
Systems Failures in Policing, 51 Suffolk U. L. Rev. 535 (2018)
Lexipol: The Privatization of Police Policymaking (with Ingrid V. Eagly), 96 Texas L. Rev. 891 (2018)
Who Can Police the Police?, 2016 Chi. Legal F. 437
How Governments Pay: Lawsuits, Budgets, and Police Reform, 63 UCLA L. Rev. 1144 (2016)
Police Indemnification, 89 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 885 (2014)
What Police Learn from Lawsuits, 33 Cardozo L. Rev. 841 (2012)
Myths and Mechanics of Deterrence: The Role of Lawsuits in Law Enforcement Decisionmaking, 57 UCLA L. Rev. 1023 (2010)
Bivens
Going Rogue: The Supreme Court’s Newfound Hostility to Policy-Based Bivens Claims (with James E. Pfander and Alexander A. Reinert), 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1835 (2021)
The Myth of Personal Liability: Who Pays When Bivens Claims Succeed (with James E. Pfander and Alexander A. Reinert), 72 Stanford L. Rev. 561 (2020)
Civil Litigation & Procedure
The Cost of Suing Business, 65 DePaul L. Rev. 655 (2016)
Introspection through Litigation, 90 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1055 (2015)
A Dose of Reality for Medical Malpractice Reform, 88 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1224 (2013)
Gateways and Pathways in Civil Procedure, 60 UCLA L. Rev. 1652 (2013)
Commentary
Qualified Immunity is Burning a Hole in the Constitution (Politico Feb. 19, 2023)
How the Supreme Court Protects Police Officers (The Atlantic Jan. 31, 2023)
To Reform Policing Accountability, States Need Not Wait on Supreme Court and Congress (USA Today, Feb. 5, 2022) (with Alex Reinert and James Pfander)
He Died After a Cop Kneeled on His Neck for Fourteen Minutes. Now His Family Can Finally Sue (USA Today, Dec. 29, 2021)
Supreme Court Just Doubled Down on Flawed Qualified Immunity Rule. Why That Matters (USA Today, Oct. 19, 2021)
Ending Qualified Immunity Won’t Ruin Cops’ Finances. It Will Better Protect the Public (USA Today, Oct. 14, 2021)
The Supreme Court Is Giving Lower Courts a Subtle Hint to Rein In Police Misconduct (The Atlantic, Mar. 4, 2021)
Hold Prosecutors Accountable, Too (Boston Review, June 22, 2020) (with Kate Levine)
Suing the Police for Abuse is Nearly Impossible. The Supreme Court Can Fix That (The Washington Post, June 3, 2020)
The Simple Way Congress Can Stop Federal Officers from Abusing Prisoners (Politico, June 10, 2020) (with James Pfander and Alex Reinert)
Learning From Litigation (New York Times, May 16, 2013)
Watching the Detectives (New York Times, June 15, 2011)
Media
Video
Videos Released of Fatal Beating of Tyre Nichols (11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, Jan. 27, 2023)
Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Protecting Police Accused of Misconduct (The Cross Connection with Tiffany Cross, MSNBC, Oct. 23, 2021)
Can Qualified Immunity and Police Accountability Coexist? Two Experts Weigh In (PBS NewsHour, Aug. 18, 2021)
Policing in America: Qualified Immunity, (ABC News Prime Live, May 21, 2021)
The Controversy Over Qualified Immunity, (CBS Sunday Morning with Ted Koppel, Sept. 27, 2020)
Audio
Law Professor Joanna Schwartz (Stand Up! with Pete Dominick, Feb. 23, 2023)
Mary Trump, Will Sommer, Joanna Schwartz (Fast Politics with Molly Jong-Fast, Feb. 21, 2023)
Unaccountable U.S. Cops (The Majority Report with Sam Seder, Feb. 21, 2023)
Justice, Arrested (Smarty Pants Podcast, Feb. 17, 2023)
How Police Became Untouchable (Lawfare Podcast, Feb. 14, 2023)
How Police Are Shielded from Lawsuits (Bloomberg Law Podcast, Nov. 22, 2022)
Will Donald Trump Be Indicted by Grand Jury? (Bloomberg Law Podcast, May 28, 2021) (discussing qualified immunity)
How Reforming Qualified Immunity Could Transform Policing in America (NPR OnPoint, May 5, 2021)
Breonna Taylor Settlement (NPR Here & Now, Sept. 16, 2020)
What Comes Next (Pod Save the People, June 30, 2020)