Daniel Epps

Daniel Epps
Alma mater	Duke University (AB) Harvard Law School (JD)
Employer	Washington University in St. Louis
Notable work	“How to Save the Supreme Court”

Daniel Epps is an associate professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis. Epps teaches first-year criminal law, upper-level courses in criminal procedure, and a seminar on public law theory. His scholarship has appeared in the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, the Michigan Law Review, and the NYU Law Review, and his writing for popular audiences has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, Vox, and The Atlantic. He is currently working on projects about the role of the jury, the Supreme Court’s case-selection process and the harmless-error doctrine.

Supreme Court Experience

Epps is a nationally recognized expert on the Supreme Court. An experienced Supreme Court litigator, he most recently served as co-counsel for the defendant in Ocasio v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1423 (2016), which addressed the scope of criminal conspiracy liability for public-sector extortion. His other notable prior work includes the successful petition for certiorari and merits briefing in Walden v. Fiore, 133 S. Ct. 1493 (2014); a brief for the Court-appointed amicus curiae in Millbrook v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 1441 (2013); and an amicus brief for criminal law and procedure scholars in United States v. Davila, 133 S. Ct. 2139 (2013). He also served as co-counsel on the brief of Prof. Stephen E. Sachs as amicus curiae in Atlantic Marine Construction Co. v. U.S. District Court, 134 S. Ct. 568 (2013) (with Jeffrey S. Bucholtz & Stephen E. Sachs), which The Green Bag Almanac & Reader included on its list of “Exemplary Legal Writing” for 2013.

Publications

Articles & Essays

• "How to Save the Supreme Court," 129 Yale Law Journal _ (forthcoming 2019) (with Ganesh Sitaraman)
• "Harmless Errors and Substantial Rights," 131 Harvard Law Review 2117 (2018)
• "The Lottery Docket," 116 Michigan Law Review 705 (2018) (with William Ortman)
• "Adversarial Asymmetry in the Criminal Process," 91 New York University Law Review 762 (2016)
• "One Last Word on the Blackstone Principle," 101 Virginia Law Review Online 34 (2016)
• "The Consequences of Error in Criminal Justice," 128 Harvard Law Review 1065 (2015)
• Note, "Mechanisms of Secrecy," 121 Harvard Law Review 1556 (2008)

Selected Commentary

• "How to Save the Supreme Court," Vox (Oct. 10, 2018) (with Ganesh Sitaraman)
• "Police Officers Are Bypassing Juries to Face Judges," Washington Post (Sept. 21, 2017)
• Contributor, “An Annotated Constitution," New York Times Magazine (July 2, 2017)
• "In Health Care Ruling, Roberts Steals a Move from John Marshall’s Playbook," The Atlantic (June 28, 2012)

Awards and Honors

• Honorable Mention, Scholarly Papers Competition, American Association of Law Schools (2018) (for The Lottery Docket)
• Finalist, Junior Scholars Paper Competition, Criminal Justice Section, American Association of Law Schools (2016) (for Adversarial Asymmetry in the Criminal Process)
• Exemplary Legal Writing, The Green Bag Almanac & Reader (2013) (for Brief of Professor Stephen E. Sachs as Amicus Curiae, Atlantic Marine Construction Co. v. U.S. District Court, 134 S. Ct. 568 (2013) (as co-counsel with Jeffrey S. Bucholtz & Stephen E. Sachs)