Kate A. Shaw
Personal details
Born
Katherine A. Shaw

Chicago, U.S.
Spouse
​
(m. 2007)​
Children3
EducationBrown University (BA)
Northwestern University (JD)

Kate A. Shaw is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, a Supreme Court contributor for ABC News, and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny.[1][2][3]

Education

Shaw graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 2001 with a Bachelor of Arts where she majored in religious studies and gender studies.[4] She then graduated first in her class from the Northwestern University School of Law in 2006 where she earned her Juris Doctor magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, was Editor-in-Chief of the Northwestern University Law Review and won the John Paul Stevens Award while there.[4]

Career

After graduating in 2006 from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Shaw clerked for Judge Richard A. Posner in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.[1] From 2009 to 2011, Shaw worked at the White House Counsel’s Office during the Obama Administration.[4] Shaw was a member of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law faculty from 2011 to 2023, where she taught Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and courses on the Supreme Court, legislation, antitrust, and gender and reproductive rights.[1][4] She joined the University of Pennsylvania Law School in January 2024. She is a member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS)[5] and the National Task Force on Election Crises.[6]

Media commentary

Professor Shaw has worked for ABC News as an analyst of the Supreme Court since 2015.[2][7] Her legal and political commentary has also appeared in publications including the New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post.[8][9][10][11] Shaw has commented on shifts in American jurisprudence,[12] political machinations in Washington and national security,[13] and Supreme Court affairs.[11] In an interview by New York Times podcast correspondent Ezra Klein in July 2022, Shaw explained the historical rightward shift in jurisprudence and conservative political strategies that led to the current ultraconservative Supreme Court.[12]

During the Trump administration, Shaw commented on various forms of legal jeopardy faced by the then-President: legal challenges to president's substantive policy initiatives (e.g., DACA, the Muslim travel ban, and environmental policy changes); investigations into members of the cabinet and White House staff; and Trump's personal legal exposure, in a podcast interview.[14] She also wrote about the dangers of Trump's political speech leading up to the 2020 election, and about the causes of the January 6th riots.[10]

Shaw has co-hosted the podcast Strict Scrutiny, along with fellow legal academics Leah Litman and Melissa Murray, since 2019. The podcast analyzes and critiques recent Supreme Court cases, providing historical context and political commentary on the likely impacts of the Court's decisions.[3] In 2022, the podcast joined the Crooked Media network.[15]

Scholarship

Shaw is a prolific legal scholar and her work has appeared in law journals such as Cornell Law Review,[16] Columbia Law Review,[5] Michigan Law Review,[17] Georgetown Law Journal,[18] Texas Law Review,[5] and Northwestern University Law Review.[19]

In a recent article, Shaw criticized the United States Electoral College for its distorting effects on democracy, laid out possible reforms, and argued for its abolishment.[17] In other commentary, Shaw has argued that the January 6 riots would not have taken place in the absence of the Electoral College.[10]

Shaw has also written about gender and reproductive rights.[1] She recently co-edited a book about judicial decisions on reproductive rights, including cases related to pregnancy, abortion and forced sterilization.[20] Among other subjects, she has also written about felony disenfranchisement in Florida[19] and campaign finance disclosure.[18]

Personal life

Shaw met Chris Hayes, now a television host at MSNBC, when they were both undergraduates at Brown University, and they married in 2007. Shaw and Hayes lived in Washington, D.C., before moving to New York City, where All In with Chris Hayes is produced.[21] They have three children.

Her father is veteran Chicago reporter Andy Shaw, who also worked for ABC News.[22]

References

  1. ^ a b c d "Kate Shaw, Professor of Law". Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Archived from the original on December 24, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Kate Shaw Joins ABC News Covering Supreme Court, Legal Issues On Hill". Deadline. February 26, 2015. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  3. ^ a b @StrictScrutiny_. "Strict Scrutiny Podcast". Twitter. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c d "Kate Shaw C.V." Cardozo School of Law. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  5. ^ a b c "About Kate Shaw". Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  6. ^ "Members". National Task Force on Election Crises. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  7. ^ "ABC News Supreme Court Analyst Kate Shaw Previews The Supreme Court Term - A look at some of the cases that will matter most during the Supreme Court's October 2015 term". ABC News. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  8. ^ "(Opinion) We Clerked for Justices Scalia and Stevens. America Is Getting Heller Wrong". New York Times. May 31, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  9. ^ "(Opinion) This Is Biden's Chance to Tell Us Exactly What the Supreme Court Has Done". New York Times. February 7, 2023. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c Shaw, Kate (June 10, 2022). "The Other Cause of January 6 - Without the Electoral College, America would never have come so close to an overthrow of its government". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  11. ^ a b Litman, Leah; Shaw, Kate; Shapiro, Carolyn (July 2, 2022). "A new Supreme Court case threatens another body blow to our democracy". Washington Post. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  12. ^ a b Ezra Klein (July 1, 2022). "The Single Best Guide I've Heard to the Supreme Court's Rightward Shift" (Podcast). New York Times. Retrieved November 15, 2022.
  13. ^ Shaw, Kate (March 5, 2018). "All Is Not Clear - What John Kelly's new security clearance policy actually means in practice". Slate. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  14. ^ Why is this Happening? (May 22, 2018). "Analyzing Trump's assault on the rule of law with Kate Shaw: podcast & transcript". NBC News. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  15. ^ Spangler, Todd (January 27, 2022). "Crooked Media Makes First Podcast Acquisitions: 'Strict Scrutiny' and 'Hot Take' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  16. ^ "Friends of the Court: Evaluating the Supreme Court's Amicus Invitations". Cornell Law Review. 2016. SSRN 2772245. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  17. ^ a b Shaw, Katherine A. (April 2022). ""A Mystifying and Distorting Factor": The Electoral College and American Democracy". Michigan Law Review. 120 (6): 1285. doi:10.36644/mlr.120.6.mystifying. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  18. ^ a b Jennifer A. Heerwig; Katherine Shaw (2014). "Through a Glass, Darkly: The Rhetoric and Reality of Campaign Finance Disclosure". Georgetown Law Journal. 102: 1443. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  19. ^ a b Katherine A. Shaw (2006). "Invoking the Penalty: How Florida's Felon Disenfranchisement Law Violates the Constitutional Requirement of Population Equality in Congressional Representation, and What to Do about It". Northwestern University Law Review. 100 (3): 1439. Retrieved February 18, 2023.
  20. ^ "Murray, Shaw, and Siegel's Reproductive Rights and Justice Stories (Law Stories Series)". UMass. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  21. ^ Mirkinson, Jack (August 1, 2011). "Chris Hayes MSNBC Weekend Show Announced". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on September 24, 2011. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  22. ^ Feder, Robert (March 18, 2013). "Chicago was prime training ground for MSNBC's Hayes". Time Out Chicago. Archived from the original on March 22, 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
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