Kellen Funk

Kellen Funk

@kellenfunk.bsky.social

Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

2.2K followers1.2K following32 posts

Kellen Funk reposted

Karen Tani
@kmtani.bsky.social

You guys. The Legal History Blog @legalhistoryblog.bsky.social has hit 15,000(!) posts! 👏 It's been an honor to help run the blog & to work beside true LHB stalwart Dan Ernst @dbqur.bsky.social. All hail LHB founder & visionary @marydudziak.bsky.social 🙌 #LegalHistory

legalhistoryblog.blogspot.comLHB 15,000This is the 15,000th post on Legal History Blog.  No less than at its founding by Mary Dudziak almost twenty years ago, it remains committe...

Kellen Funk reposted

Mary Dudziak
@marydudziak.bsky.social

Blueskys: the American Society for Legal History has a Digital Legal History Prize! Deadline June 1. I am a little embarrassed to have such a prize named for me since my current work isn't digital. 🙄 But years ago, when blogs were new, I created the Legal History Blog. aslh.net/award/mary-l...

aslh.netMary L. Dudziak Digital Legal History Prize | American Society for Legal HistoryThe Dudziak Prize, named in honor of Mary L. Dudziak, a leading scholar of twentieth century U.S. legal history and international relations as well as a digital history pioneer, is awarded annually to...
Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

The court has considered the question for so many years Sandy and I had time to publish on it, so it was an honor to see that work acknowledged in this important opinion.

Kellen Funk reposted

Lawrence Solum
@lsolum.bsky.social

Schmidt & Funk on the Supreme Court’s Equity Docket Thomas P. Schmidt (Columbia University - Law School) & Kellen Funk (Columbia University - Law School) have posted The Equity Docket (101 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court has two sides. On its…

legaltheoryblog.comSchmidt & Funk on the Supreme Court’s Equity DocketThomas P. Schmidt (Columbia University - Law School) & Kellen Funk (Columbia University - Law School) have posted The Equity Docket (101 N.Y.U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2026)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Supreme Court has two sides. On its ordinary docket, the Court answers questions of law after briefing and oral argument. On its extraordinary docket, the Court fields applications from litigants asking it to equitably set the status of a new law or executive action while a lawsuit is pending.

Kellen Funk reposted

Lincoln Mullen
@lincolnmullen.com

A few months ago I realized my rare and valuable skill—writing code as a historian—was still valuable but no longer rare. Now I'm thinking about what it means when the technical barriers to digital history drop away.

lincolnmullen.comBehind, ahead | Lincoln MullenA historian reflects on how agentic AI coding tools have changed the possibilities for digital history, making once-rare programming skills widely accessible, and argues that digital history should be...

Kellen Funk reposted

Legal History Blog
@legalhistoryblog.bsky.social
dlvr.itCromwell Foundation Cromwell Article Prize to Funk & MaysonVia the William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, we have the following announcement: The Cromwell Article Prize for best article in legal history published in the calendar year 2024 has been awarded to Kellen R. Funk (Columbia Law School) and Sandra D. Mayson (Penn Carey Law School) for their article Bail at the Founding, published in volume 137 of the Harvard Law Review.  Funk and Mayson do a deep dive into the law and practice of bail at the founding, finding that the liberty-protecting law on the books was belied in practice for many accused of crimes, for whom pretrial detention was a routine matter.  Through astonishing archival sleuthing, the authors uncover a world of pretrial detention and bail practice that turned not on cash but on reputation.  Sureties and unsecured pledges, they find, were the principal mechanisms for those let out of custody pending trial in the early republic.  Bail at the Founding is an archival exploration of great value to the working out of the Constitution’s original public meaning for questions about pretrial detention.  It is also a challenge to that project, because it raises deep questions about whether and how the reputation-centered and cash-scarce world of the late eighteenth century can be translated into the cash- and credit-rich world of the twenty first. The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, established by William Nelson Cromwell in 1930, supports work in American legal history.  The Foundation’s prize for the legal history article of the year is intended to recognize the growing role of legal history and teaching and research in law schools. This year the prize was selected from articles published in leading student-edited law journals. The prize committee, chaired by Foundation trustee John Fabian Witt (Yale Law School), consisted of Foundation trustees Sarah Barringer Gordon (Penn Carey Law) and John Langbein (Yale Law School), along with Dan Ernst (Georgetown Law), Amalia Kessler (Stanford Law School), and Alison LaCroix (University of Chicago Law School).   The Foundation makes grants to support important work in all facets of American legal history including archival preservation, scholarly study of original documents, original research in all areas of the law, and research and writing of biographies of major legal figures. Information on how to apply for a prize, fellowship or grant may be found on the Foundation’s website, cromwellfoundation.org. @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";}a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:#467886; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;}a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:#96607D; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Aptos; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Aptos; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Aptos; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}.MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:8.0pt; line-height:115%;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection Congratulations to Professor Funk and Professor Mayson!  -- Karen Tani 
Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

Further support for my reading of “Junkers” is that the public, recorded debates had several references to “Gypsies” accompanying references to the “Chinese,” “Mongolians,” and “Chinamen.” Trumbull is keeping the sequence of disfavored groups but using the more polite terms.

Anthony Michael Kreis@anthonymkreis.bsky.social

So, I read through the transcription part of the Lash paper again. Again, I am okay with using AI to assist with difficult handwriting samples. That said. I’m really not convinced that it says “Yankees” after Irish. It looks like Irish Indian to me with missing comma. I’ll chew on that. HOWEVER:

Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

On a quick glance it would seem to me the only funds that could be readily sequestered to punish bail reform jurisdictions would be the funds that go to militarize the local police. Donald Trump: big fan of defunding the police. Put it in the papers. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...

whitehouse.govTaking Steps to End Cashless Bail to Protect AmericansBy the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.  Purpose and
Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

I guess it’s as good a time as any to say I have new writing on the history of bail. Fun fact for today: what the President’s order attacks as “cashless bail” was the only kind of bail system America had for its first hundred years. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

papers.ssrn.comBail at the Second FoundingThe Eighth Amendment prohibits "excessive bail," but modern legal challenges brought against America's money bail system have made another constitutio
Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

My only other comment on the order is that it’s so vague it will mean whatever the AG wants it to mean, which is to say only blue jurisdictions can expect to be defunded, whatever their bail practices are. Basically every jurisdiction in America uses some mix of cash and cashless bail.

Kellen Funk reposted

Kevin M. Kruse
@kevinmkruse.bsky.social

Congrats to the new class of Guggenheim Fellows! Thrilled to see @jimdowns.bsky.social, @marthasjones.bsky.social, @kellenfunk.bsky.social and so many more. Apologies in advance for the hazing rituals. www.gf.org/stories/anno...

gf.orgAnnouncing the 2025 Guggenheim Fellows — Guggenheim Fellowships: Supporting Artists, Scholars, & ScientistsSince 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has given Fellowships to exceptional artists, writers, scholars, and scientists, empowering them to pursue meaningful work under the freest possible conditions.

Kellen Funk reposted

Katie McDonough
@kmcdono.bsky.social

Blown away by amazing presentations, mostly from early career historians and archivists, at the Archives as Data conference this morning! (before heading over to #aha25 later this afternoon...) iserp.columbia.edu/events/archi...

iserp.columbia.eduArchives As Data: New Directions in Historical Research | Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP)Columbia's History Lab and Columbia Libraries proudly present a one-day conference highlighting the innovative work and new research opportunities emerging from the increasing volume of digitized and ...

Kellen Funk reposted

Jamal Greene
@jamalgreene.bsky.social

I mourn the loss of my colleague Henry Paul Monaghan, a giant in federal courts and constitutional law, a phenomenal mentor to more junior scholars, and an institution at Columbia Law School. He will be greatly missed.

Kellen Funk reposted

Payvand Ahdout
@payvandahdout.bsky.social

There is so much to say about my dear mentor, Henry Monaghan. His work was foundational. His critiques, devastating. His praise, life changing. More to say in an appropriate medium, but for now: I will miss him.

Kellen Funk reposted

bmrichardson.bsky.social
@bmrichardson.bsky.social

Call for Papers - 14th Annual Junior Federal Courts Workshop - Cornell Law School, 4/25/2025. Junior scholars in fields of federal courts, civil procedure, civil rights litigation, constitutional law are encouraged to apply. Abstracts due 1/15/25. community.lawschool.cornell.edu/junior-facul...

community.lawschool.cornell.edu14th Annual Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop – Cornell Law School CommunityThe workshop will begin on the morning of Friday, April 25, 2025. Each panel will consist of three to four junior scholars, with a senior scholar commenting on the papers and leading a group discussion.
Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

In the 1890s a discerning buyer could purchase a poster-size facsimile of the bail bond of Jefferson Davis from 1867. Keep in mind when you see “I’m voting for the felon” merchandise thirty years hence.

Kellen Funk reposted

Lincoln Mullen
@lincolnmullen.com

Today @rrchnm.bsky.social released Antisemitism, U.S.A., our newest history podcast. www.r2studios.org/show/Antisem... The narrative podcast tells the history of U.S. antisemitism in ten episodes, featuring interviews with dozens of experts on the subject.

r2studios.orgAntisemitism, U.S.A.Antisemitism has deep roots in American history. Yet in the United States, we often talk about it as if it were something new. We’re shocked when events happen like…

Kellen Funk reposted

Lincoln Mullen
@lincolnmullen.com

Millions of people are incarcerated pre-trial because they can't make cash bail. But where did the system of cash bail come from? @kellenfunk.bsky.social and Sandra Mayson offer a history of "Bail at the Founding" in the Harvard Law Review. harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-13...

harvardlawreview.orgBail at the Founding - Harvard Law ReviewAbstract How did criminal bail work in the Founding era? This question has become pressing as bail, and bail reform, have attracted increasing attention,...
Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

Despite the portentous title (🙄), we publish what we hope will be a first foray into this rich and complex history, and not the final word. Bail practices reveal a lot about local justice and policing as well as high constitutional theory.

Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

Thousands of ordinary Philadelphians were caught up in the system every year, as also were leading founders like William Penn and Aaron Burr. If you or your students find ways to make use of the records we found, we’d love to hear from you.

Kellen Funk
@kellenfunk.bsky.social

Launched in 2020, this became the perfect pandemic project as the Philadelphia archives safely reopened during the summer (cf. the abominable National Archives), AND had immaculately preserved jail dockets—the best I’ve seen from anytime anywhere in America. (cont’d)

Kellen Funk reposted

John Pfaff
@johnpfaff.bsky.social

Just like Commissioner Shea had a much less critical take on bail reform when testifying under oath in Albany than he did talking—not under oath—to the press. One need not be directly elected to be a politician, thus earning the wariness and skepticism that comes w that.

Max Kennerly@maxkennerly.bsky.social

Note to journalists: retail companies never said anything like this on investor calls because they'd get sued by shareholders for securities fraud. It was all a PR stunt. Don't listen to the lobbyists, look at the disclosures to investors.

Kellen Funk reposted

Lincoln Mullen
@lincolnmullen.com

Earlier this year I published an interactive scholarly work titled "America's Public Bible: A Commentary." It's a data-driven history about how people read the Bible in the 19th- and 20th-century United States. americaspublicbible.org (Sharing it now since I haven't shared it here before.)

americaspublicbible.orgAmerica’s Public Bible: A CommentaryThroughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, newspapers in the United States—even newspapers which were not published by a religious denomination or organization—made frequent...

You are up to date.