Biography

Professor Kyle Langvardt joined the faculty of the College of Law in July 2020.  As a Faculty Fellow in the interdisciplinary Nebraska Technology & Governance Center, Professor Langvardt teaches regularly in the College of Business as well.  

He is a First Amendment scholar who focuses on the platform economy's implications for free expression both as a matter of constitutional doctrine and as a practical reality. His written work addresses new and confounding policy issues including tech addiction, the collapse of traditional gatekeepers in online media, and 3D-printable weapons. Professor Langvardt’s most recent papers appear in the Georgetown Law Journal, the Fordham Law Review and the George Mason Law Review. 

Professor Langvardt received his B.A. in Philosophy from Earlham College, where he graduated with College and Departmental Honors, and he received his J.D. from the University of Chicago School of Law. After law school, Professor Langvardt practiced at the Chicago, Illinois office of Locke Lord Bissell & Liddell LLP (now Locke Lord LLP). He went on to teach as a lecturer in the Department of Business Law at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, and later as a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, where he received James T. Barnes, Sr. Memorial Faculty Scholar Award in 2019.

Selected Publications/Articles

• Regulating Habit-Forming Technology,  88 Fordham L. Rev. 129 (2019)

• A New Deal for the Online Public Sphere,  26 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 341 (2019)Regulating Online Content Moderation,  106 Geo. L.J. 1353 (2018)

• A Model of First Amendment Decisionmaking at a Divided Court,  84 Tenn L. Rev. 833 (2017)

• Remarks on 3D Printing, Free Speech, and Lochner,  17 Minn. J.L. Sci. & Tech. 779 (2016) (symposium piece)

• The Doctrinal Toll of "Information as Speech,"  47 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 761 (2016)

• The Replicator and the First Amendment,  Fordham Intell. Prop. Media & Ent. L.J. (2015)

• The Lawless Rule of the Norm in the Government Religious Speech Cases,  20 Wash. & Lee J. Civil Rts. & Soc. Just. 405 (2014)

• The Sorry Case for Citizens United: Remarks at the 2012 Charleston Law Review and Riley Institute of Law and Society Symposium,  6 Charleston L. Rev. 569 (2012) (symposium)

• Unwise or Unconstitutional?: The Copyright Term Extension Act, the Eldred Decision, and the Freezing of the Public Domain for Private Benefit,  5 Minn. Intell. Prop. Rev. 193 (2004) (with Arlen Langvardt)

Books and Book Chapters

• Four Modes of Speech Protection for Algorithms, book chapter forthcoming in Cambridge Handbook on Law and Algorithms, ed. Woodrow Barfield (Cambridge Univ. Press)

Selected Presentations

• Checking Apex Platforms, Federalist Society Junior Scholars Workshop: “Regulating Giant Platforms.” University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN, Dec. 5, 2019

• Checking Apex Platforms, Washburn Law School Symposium: “The Future of Cyber Speech, Media, and Privacy.” Washburn University School of Law, Topeka, KS, Nov. 6, 2019

• Checking Apex Platforms, University of Nebraska College of Law, Lincoln, NE, Nov. 4, 2019

• Panel Discussion: Impeachment, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, October 30, 2019

• Panel Discussion: Transactional Practice (moderator), University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, October 24, 2019

• The Fifth Branch, Central States Law Schools Association 2019 Annual Conference, University of Toledo College of Law, Toledo, OH, September 20-21, 2019

• Regulating Habit-Forming Technology, American Constitution Society Constitutional Law Scholars Forum, Barry University School of Law, Orlando, FL, March 1, 2019

• Regulating Habit-Forming Technology, Tech Law and Policy Colloquium, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., February 21, 2019

• Behaviorally Addictive Speech, Ninth Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL, Nov. 2-3, 2018

• Toward a First Amendment Jurisprudence for the Platform Economy, National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars, Tucson, AZ, Mar. 16-17, 2018

• Toward a First Amendment Jurisprudence for the Platform Economy, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Mar. 12, 2018

• Regulating Online Content Moderation, University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, Jan. 2018

• Regulating Online Content Moderation, “All Things in Moderation” Conference, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, Dec. 6-7, 2017

• After the Marketplace of Ideas, Eighth Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL, Nov. 3-4, 2017

• Panel Discussion: Hate Speech After Charlottesville, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, Oct. 18, 2017

• Regulating Online Content Moderation, University of Nebraska College of Law, Lincoln, NE, Oct. 17, 2017

• Regulating Online Content Moderation, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, Oct. 4, 2017

• Panel Discussion: Presidential Powers and the Trump Administration, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, Sept. 13, 2017

• What is the Constitution? Louis Pasteur Elementary School, Detroit, MI, Feb. 24, 2017

• Panel Discussion: The Muslim Ban, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, Feb. 1, 2017

• The First Amendment at a Divided Court, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, Mar. 27. 2017

• The First Amendment at a Progressive Court, Seventh Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL, Nov. 5, 2016

• Panel Discussion: The Garland Nomination, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law, Detroit, MI, Oct. 31, 2016

• Remarks on 3D Printing, Free Speech, and Lochner. Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology 2016 Symposium: "Disruptive Innovation: Legal Concerns in 3D Printing.” University of Minnesota Law School, Minneapolis, MN, Mar. 4, 2016

• Free Speech’s Tech Bubble, Address at the Loyola Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL, Nov. 7, 2015

• The Doctrinal Toll of “Information as Speech,” Address at the Central States Law Schools Association Annual Conference, University of Toledo School of Law, Toledo, OH, Oct. 9, 2015

• The Replicator and the First Amendment, Address at the Loyola Annual Constitutional Law Colloquium, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Chicago, IL, Nov. 8, 2014

• The Demise of “Tests” in the Government Religious Speech Cases, Southeastern Law Scholars Conference, Charleston School of Law, Charleston, SC, Oct. 5, 2013

• Election Law Panel Discussion, Charleston School of Law, Charleston, SC, Feb. 22, 2013

   

Undergraduate Courses

Law for Startups (BLAW ___) - This course will walk business students through the most common legal questions that technology startups face in their early years. Students will gain the working knowledge to retain counsel on appropriate terms, to recognize legal risk, and to avoid predatory transactions. To the greatest extent possible, the course will track the early lifecycle of the company, beginning with incorporation and ending at a sale, merger, or initial public offering.

Legislation and Regulation (BLAW 378) - Learn about legislation, the sources of governmental policy, and the considerations that go into legislative and administrative policy making. Practice analyzing complex language through the art of statutory interpretation. 

Courses at the College of Law

Constitutional Law I (609/G) - This course is an introduction to American constitutional law and the structure of American government. The course focuses on the function, purposes, and limitations of judicial review; the balance of power between federal and state governments; the separation of national powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the federal government; and the Civil War amendments’ guarantees of equal protection and fundamental rights. (First Amendment rights are mostly reserved for Constitutional Law II.) The course further provides students with an understanding of constitutional law’s conceptual and historical foundations as well as of the enduring debates and tensions that shape the law’s continuing development. Particular attention goes to the competing theories of constitutional interpretation, to tensions between judicial review and democratic majoritarianism, and to the role that policy, moral, and political judgments have played in the development of constitutional doctrine and practice. Overall, the course offers a solid context and framework for understanding the constitution’s role in contemporary moral, political and legal disputes.

Selected Media Placements