Representative Professional Activities and Achievements
Professor Bruhl teaches and writes on statutory interpretation, federal courts, and the legislative process. His scholarly publications have appeared in many of the nation's leading law journals and have been cited by state and federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2014. He has offered expert commentary for television, radio, magazines, and national wire services. He is one of the most highly cited scholars in the field of legislation and statutory interpretation.
Professor Bruhl received his J.D. degree from Yale Law School. While at Yale, he served as Book Reviews Editor for the Yale Law Journal and also worked on the Yale Law & Policy Review and the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities. Professor Bruhl holds a master's degree in political theory from the University of Cambridge.
After law school, Professor Bruhl clerked for Chief Judge Carolyn Dineen King on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He then worked as a litigation associate in the Washington DC office of Jenner & Block LLP. His work focused on federal appellate litigation and included cases involving election law, the First Amendment, federal Indian law, and copyright infringement over online peer-to-peer file-sharing services. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and New York.
Before joining the William & Mary faculty in 2015, Professor Bruhl taught at the University of Houston Law Center and served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He was a recipient of the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence in 2017 and was honored by the graduating class of 2020 with the Walter L. Williams Jr. Teaching Award.
Scholarly Publications
Articles and Book Chapters
- Law and Equity on Appeal, Colum. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming). SSRN.
- Supreme Court Litigators in the Age of Textualism, 76 Florida L. Rev. 59 (2024). SSRN.
- Making and Managing Interpretive Change, N. Car. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2025).
- The Supreme Court Review Act: Fast-Tracking the Interbranch Dialogue and Destabilizing the Filibuster, 25 U. Penn. J. Constitutional L. Online 1 (2023). SSRN.
- Interpreting State Statutes in Federal Court, 98 Notre Dame L. Rev. 61 (2022). SSRN.
- Improving (and Avoiding) Interstate Interpretive Encounters, 2022 Wis. L. Rev. 1139 (2022). SSRN.
- Eager to Follow: Methodological Precedent in Statutory Interpretation, 99 N. Car. L. Rev. 101 (2020). SSRN.
- The Remand Power and The Supreme Court's Role, 96 Notre Dame L. Rev. 171 (2020). SSRN.
- Statutory Interpretation and the Rest of the Iceberg: Divergences Between the Lower Federal Courts and the Supreme Court, 68 Duke L.J. 1 (2018). SSRN.
- One Good Plaintiff Is Not Enough, 67 Duke L.J. 481 (2017). SSRN.
- Separating Amicus Wheat from Chaff, 106 Geo. L.J. Online 135 (2017) (with Adam Feldman). SSRN.
- The Jurisdiction Canon, 70 Vand. L. Rev. 499 (2017). SSRN.
- Communicating the Canons: How Lower Courts React When the Supreme Court Changes the Rules of Statutory Interpretation, 100 Minn. L. Rev. 481 (2015). SSRN.
- Following Lower-Court Precedent, 81 U. Chi. L. Rev. 851 (2014). SSRN.
- Measuring Circuit Splits: A Cautionary Note, 3 J. Legal Metrics 361 (2014) (peer-edited). SSRN.
- Hierarchically Variable Deference to Agency Interpretations, 89 Notre Dame L. Rev. 727 (2013). SSRN.
- Elected Judges and Statutory Interpretation, 79 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1215 (2012) (with Ethan J. Leib). SSRN.
- Hierarchy and Heterogeneity: How To Read a Statute in a Lower Court, 97 Cornell L. Rev. 433 (2012) (Abridged version of this article was published at The Legal Workshop (June 2012)). SSRN.
- Deciding When To Decide: How Appellate Procedure Distributes the Costs of Legal Change, 96 Cornell L. Rev. 203 (2011) (Abridged version of this article was published at The Legal Workshop (Jan. 2011)). SSRN.
- The Senate: Out of Order?, 43 Conn. L. Rev. 1041 (2011) (symposium article).
- When Is Finality … Final? Rehearing and Resurrection in the Supreme Court, 12 J. App. Prac. & Process 1 (2011) (peer-edited). SSRN.
- Burying the "Continuing Body" Theory of the Senate, 95 Iowa L. Rev. 1401 (2010). SSRN.
- The Supreme Court's Controversial GVRs - and an Alternative, 107 Mich. L. Rev. 711 (2009). SSRN.
- Entries on Subject Matter Jurisdiction and Abbott Labs v. Gardner, in Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan/Gale 2008).
- Return of the Line Item Veto? Legalities, Practicalities, and Some Puzzles, 10 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 447 (2008). SSRN.
- The Unconscionability Game: Strategic Judging and the Development of Federal Arbitration Law, 83 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1420 (2008) (Abridged version of this article was published at The Legal Workshop (Mar. 2009)). SSRN.
- Against Mix-and-Match Lawmaking, 16 Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol'y 349 (2007) (solicited). SSRN.
- If the Judicial Confirmation Process Is Broken, Can a Statute Fix It?, 85 Neb. L. Rev. 960 (2007). SSRN.
- The New Line Item Veto Proposal: This Time It's Constitutional (Mostly), 116 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 84 (2006). Online.
- Public Reason as a Public Good, 4 J.L. Soc'y 217 (2003). SSRN.
- Using Statutes To Set Legislative Rules: Entrenchment, Separation of Powers, and the Rules of Proceedings Clause, 19 J.L. & Pol. 345 (2003). SSRN.
- Note, Justice Unconceived: How Posterity Has Rights, 14 Yale J. L. & Human. 393 (2002). SSRN.
Other
- What would happen to all of the prior Chevron cases in a non-Chevron world?, Yale J. on Regulation: Notice & Comment (2023).
- Rationing the Constitution: Beyond and Below, Balkinization (Sept. 10, 2019) (Blog). Online.
- A Comment on Sherry's "Judicial Activism": Judicial Activism and the Problem of Induction, 16 Green Bag 2d 453 (2013). Online.
- When is Finality Final? Second Chances at the Supreme Court, The Appellate Forum [Nat’l Bar Ass’n Appellate Section Newsletter], vol. 1, no. 1. p. 2, (Jan. 2013).
- Entries on Precedent and Contempt of Congress, in Encyclopedia of Political Science (CQ Press/Sage 2010).
- Entries on Ripeness and Abstention, in Encyclopedia of the United States Constitution (Facts on File 2009).
- Supplemental Jurisdiction, 2007 (with Seth J. Chandler) (interactive Mathematica demonstration). Online.