My principal interest is the American political process, including the ways it is structured by constitutional law and the administrative state. With a background in the sociology of law, I am particularly interested in increasing the democratic accountability of political institutions through political participation. I am a member of the Scholars Strategy Network, which published my 2016 policy brief, "The Inevitable Limits of Campaign Finance Reform."
I have written extensively about the right of peaceable assembly. My current research focuses, however, on the implications of empirical work on the drivers of political participation for both the law of democracy and the freedom of association. My publications include "Networking the Party: First Amendment Rights & the Pursuit of Responsive Party Government," in the Columbia Law Review; "The Neglected Right of Assembly," in the UCLA Law Review, and “Changing the People: Legal Regulation and American Democracy," in the New York University Law Review.
I received my JD/PhD in Law and Society from New York University. My dissertation, "Changing the People: Transformations in American Democracy (1880-1930)," documents the rise of municipal ordinances requiring permits for public assemblies and argues that American democracy was fundamentally transformed in the 20th century as the nature of state regulation of democratic politics changed.