Education

A.B., English, Harvard College

J.D., Harvard Law School

About

Professor Joseph Thai teaches and writes about constitutional law, the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court. 

Prof. Thai served as law clerk to Justices John Paul Stevens and Byron White of the Supreme Court and Judge David Ebel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

He frequently engages in civil rights litigation and served on the legal team that successfully challenged Oklahoma’s same-sex marriage ban a year before the Supreme Court upheld marriage equality nationwide.

Prof. Thai has taught thousands of graduates from law schools across the country as the constitutional law lecturer for BARBRI, the leading bar review course in the nation.

In 2021, Prof. Thai was elected into the American Law Institute.

At the College of Law, Prof. Thai has served as Associate Dean for Research and Enrichment. Prof. Thai has often been named outstanding professor by students at the law school and once by students university-wide. 

Additional Information

Affirmative Action’s Asian American Problem
2024
LOYOLA LOS ANGELES LAW REVIEW
(with Huyen Pham)

Powers Rights Wrongs: Interrogating Constitutional History and Law
2021
Kindle

Mark Zuckerberg Still Decides What Users Can Say on Facebook
May 13, 2020
MEDIUM

Facebook’s Speech Code and Policies: How They Suppress Speech and Distort Democratic Deliberation
May 2020
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW

Federal Court Ruling in OKC Case is a Victory for the First Amendment
September 2020
The Oklahoman

Justice Stevens: A Habit of Understanding Before Disagreeing
July 2019
SCOTUSBLOG

The Right to Receive Foreign Speech
2018
OKLAHOMA LAW REVIEW
(Symposium)

FIRST FREEDOMS: A MULTIMEDIA TEXTBOOK ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT
2017
Kindle

Honey (Said Justice Scalia) I Shrunk the Constitution
Feb. 22, 2016
ACSBLOG

Teaching Criminal Procedure
2015
St. LOUIS UNIVERSITY LAW JOURNAL
(with Stephen Henderson)

Regulating Drones under the First and Fourth Amendments
2015
WILLIAM & MARY LAW REVIEW
(with Marc Blitz et al.)

Obergefell v. Hodges: A Note to Future Self
June 26, 2015
ACSBLOG

CONSTITUTIONAL RESTRAINTS ON POLICING: A MULTIMEDIA TEXTBOOK ON CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
2014
Kindle

A Race to Execute
May 7, 2014
ACSBLOG

Crowdsourced Coursebooks
2014
51 ALBERTA LAW REVIEW 907
(with Stephen Henderson)

THE SUPREME COURT SOURCEBOOK
2013
Aspen

My Boss, Justice Stevens
April 9, 2010
New York Times

A Justice of the Greatest Generation
April 9, 2010
Washington Post

Did Justice Stevens Change?
April 2010
SCOTUSBLOG
Reprinted in SALON.COM

The Case for Oral Argument in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma
2008
61 OKLAHOMA LAW REVIEW 695
(with Andrew M. Coats)

John Paul Stevens
2008
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
Macmillan

The Other Side
2007
THIS I BELIEVE

The Law Clerk Who Wrote Rasul v. Bush: John Paul Stevens's Influence from World War II to the War on Terror
2006
92 VIRGINIA LAW REVIEW 501

Is Data Mining Ever a Search Under Justice Stevens's Fourth Amendment
2006
74 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW 1731