Benjamin Eidelson

Benjamin Eidelson, a scholar of public law and issues at the intersection of law and philosophy, joined the Law School faculty in 2019. He writes and teaches primarily in the areas of constitutional law, antidiscrimination law, statutory interpretation, administrative law, and legal theory.

Eidelson’s recent articles include:

• The Incompatibility of Substantive Canons and Textualism (with Matthew Stephenson)
• Unreflective Disequilibrium: Race-Conscious Admissions After SFFA (with Deborah Hellman)
• The Etiquette of Equality
• Dimensional Disparate Treatment
• Reasoned Explanation and Political Accountability in the Roberts Court

His first book, Discrimination and Disrespect, based on his doctoral dissertation in philosophy, develops an account of wrongful discrimination rooted in the moral demands of respect for persons. His writing for broader audiences has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, and other publications.

Eidelson has also litigated significant cases involving constitutional law, administrative law, and immigration. In 2019, he developed and advanced a legal theory that was adopted by the Supreme Court in its decision invalidating the rescission of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy. During his time in private practice, he litigated cases at all levels of the federal judiciary, including arguing an appeal in the D.C. Circuit that reinstated a challenge to the State Department’s implementation of President Trump’s “travel ban.”

Eidelson received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Yale College, and his D.Phil. and B.Phil. in Philosophy from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar and was awarded the Gilbert Ryle Prize. He then received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he served as the editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and as a student director of the Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic. After law school, Eidelson clerked for Chief Judge Merrick B. Garland of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Justice Elena Kagan of the U.S. Supreme Court.