Jacob Schriner-Briggs joined the faculty at Chicago-Kent College of Law as a visiting assistant professor in July 2024. His work focuses on constitutional theory and development with particular emphasis on the relationship between democratic self-government and the First Amendment freedoms of press and speech. He came to Chicago-Kent after serving as a visiting clinical lecturer and resident fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project.
Before he turned to teaching, Schriner-Briggs practiced in the Media and Entertainment Group at Ballard Spahr LLP, assisting journalists with information requests and helping defend them from defamation suits. He also worked pro bono on behalf of an undocumented journalist facing deportation and filed suit against the Commonwealth of Virginia to obtain emails sent to an “anti-Critical Race Theory” tipline.
While in law school, Schriner-Briggs served as a student director of the Media Freedom and Information Access Clinic. In his clinical work, he argued before the First Circuit Court of Appeals and contributed to a Supreme Court amicus brief filed in Rucho v. Common Cause which argued that political gerrymandering violates the First Amendment. Schriner-Briggs was an articles editor for the Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, a contributing editor for the Yale Law and Policy Review, and communications chair for the law school’s First Generation Professionals affinity group.
In his most recent scholarship, Schriner-Briggs stresses the importance of free press to democracy and defends the authority of the political branches to interpret and apply the Constitution. His work on these themes is forthcoming in the St. John’s Law Review. He has previously been published in Communications Lawyer.
Schriner-Briggs earned his B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Youngstown State University in 2017 and his Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 2021. He is licensed to practice law in the state of New York.
Education
J.D., Yale Law School
B.A., Youngstown State University
Awards
Yale Law School Charles G. Albom Prize recognizing “excellence in the area of judicial appellate advocacy” for oral argument before First Circuit Court of Appeals in Lepore v. United States (2021)
Youngstown State University Leslie H. Cochran University Scholar (comprehensive academic scholarship)
Youngstown State University PIN Award recognizing academic success and “outstanding leadership, motivation, and creativity in university and community activities”
Publications
Guaranteeing the Press (work in progress)
What Sullivan Meant (work in progress)
Lyrics in Limine: Rap Music and Criminal Prosecutions, 38 Comm. Law. 10 (2023) (with Kelly McGlynn and Jacquelyn Schell)
Presentations
Workshop Participant, Chicago, IL, The Press Clause: The Forgotten First Amendment, Sept. 22, 2023
Workshop Participant, New Haven, CT, The Press Clause: The Forgotten First Amendment, May 12, 2023
Plenary Panel Moderator, New Haven, CT, The Modern Press Clause, 11th Annual Freedom of Expression Scholars Conference Apr. 29, 2023
Youngstown Press Club, Democracy, The Constitution, and the American Press, Mar. 7, 2023
Guest Lecturer, remote, California State University Long Beach, Feb. 11, 2022
Guest Lecturer, remote, Centro Universitário das Faculdades Metropolitanas Unidas (São Paulo, Brazil), November 2021
Guest Lecturer, remote, University of California Berkeley School of Law, October 2019
Conference Presenter, Villanova, PA, "Reasonable" Killing: An Ethical and Jurisprudential Discussion of Deadly Force in American Policing, Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum, 21st International Conference, Oct. 11, 2019
Conference Presenter, Greenville, SC, Distorting Self-Defense: Philosophical Justifications and Stand-Your-Ground Laws, Society for Ethics Across the Curriculum, 17th International Conference, Oct. 10, 2015