Kyle Langvardt

Professor Kyle Langvardt

Kyle Langvardt Assistant Professor of Law

Biography

Professor Kyle Langvardt joined the faculty in July 2020 as a member of the Nebraska Technology & Governance Center.  He is a First Amendment scholar who focuses on the Internet’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.


Watch to see how Professor Langvardt is helping to regulate speech in the 21st Century. 

Courses

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.

Technology Governance and Regulation: Concepts 775/G (1cr hr)
This single credit, pass/fail class is offered to all students at the beginning of each semester. The course serves as a foundation for other courses in the technology governance curriculum. It starts by introducing technical concepts, such as how computers and the Internet work, in a manner accessible to all students. It then continues with foundational legal concepts, such as the First and Fourth Amendments. The third portion of the class introduces regulatory concepts such as administrative and antitrust law. This course is available to online LLM students.

Platforms: Speech and Media 787/G (2cr hr)
This course deals with the law and practice of content governance in both online and more traditional media. The course will begin with an overview of basic First Amendment principles, and then proceed to more specific doctrines concerning the regulation of various types of sensitive subject matter including incitement, hate speech, pornography, and misinformation. The course will then examine the content governance practices of privately-owned online platforms. From here, the course will consider the First Amendment and statutory doctrines that shield and protect the editorial and content governance practices of various types of intermediaries—newspapers, broadcasters, cable providers, search engines, social platforms, and online platforms more generally. Finally, the course will discuss various levers of state influence over platforms’ handling of third-party content. This course is available to online LLM students. Pre-requisite: Technology Governance and Regulation: Concepts.

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)

Imagining Change Before and After Citizens United,  3 Ala. C.R. & C.L.L. Rev. 227 (Spring 2012)

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)

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)

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

Other
Date: 
Friday, September 9, 2022

Education

J.D., 2007, University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, IL
B.A., 2004, Earlham College, Richmond, IN

Areas of Expertise