Faculty
Washington University School of Law
Howard and Caroline Cayne Distinguished Professor of Law, teaching and writing in constitutional law, federal courts, and criminal law and procedure.
WashU Law profileConstitutional law · Federal courts · Criminal procedure
Daniel Epps
Howard and Caroline Cayne Distinguished Professor of Law
I write and teach about constitutional law and theory, the federal courts, criminal law and procedure, and the U.S. Supreme Court.
Washington University in St. Louis
About
Scholarship, public law, and the Supreme Court.
My scholarship sits at the intersection of constitutional law and theory, federal courts, and criminal law and procedure. It has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Columbia Law Review, and other leading journals.
I also write for general audiences and comment frequently on the Supreme Court. Before joining WashU Law, I was a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School and an appellate specialist at King & Spalding, and I clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
Courses taught
- Constitutional Law
- Federal Courts
- Criminal Law
- Criminal Procedure: Investigation
- Criminal Procedure: Adjudication
- Public Law Theory
Selected writing
Recent and representative work
01Harvard Law Review · forthcomingConstitutional Rights and General Private LawHow the background principles of private law shape the content of constitutional rights.140 Harv. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027)
02Vanderbilt Law Review · 2026Justifying the Fourth AmendmentA constitutional-theory account of why search-and-seizure protections belong in entrenched constitutional law.79 Vand. L. Rev. 1 (2026)03Virginia Law Review · 2025The Practice of Executive ConstitutionalismWith Conor Clarke, an account of how the Executive Branch interprets and implements the Constitution.111 Va. L. Rev. 1531 (2025)04Columbia Law Review · 2023The False Promise of Jurisdiction StrippingWith Alan M. Trammell, why stripping federal courts of jurisdiction rarely delivers the control its proponents expect.123 Colum. L. Rev. 2077 (2023)05Yale Law Journal · 2023The Fourth Amendment and General LawWith Danielle D'Onfro, recovering the general law that once supplied the Fourth Amendment's content.132 Yale L.J. 910 (2023)06Yale Law Journal · 2019How to Save the Supreme CourtWith Ganesh Sitaraman, two structural proposals for reducing the stakes of Supreme Court appointments.129 Yale L.J. 148 (2019)Projects & affiliations
Where I teach, talk, and practice
Podcast
Divided Argument
An unscheduled, unpredictable Supreme Court podcast, co-hosted with William Baude and produced in partnership with SCOTUSblog.
Listen to the podcastPractice
Wilkinson Stekloff
Of Counsel, advising on appellate, constitutional, and regulatory issues arising in high-stakes litigation.
Firm profileContact & profiles