Professor of Law
Director, Center for Rights and Justice
Education
A.B. 1994, Brown University
J.D. 1999, New York University
Areas of Expertise
Bio
Professor Reinert joined the faculty of Cardozo in 2007, after working as an associate at Koob & Magoolaghan for six years, where he focused on prisoners’ rights, employment discrimination, and disability rights. Professor Reinert teaches and conducts research in the areas of constitutional law, civil procedure, and criminal law. His articles have appeared in the Indiana Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, Stanford Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the University of Virginia Law Review, and William and Mary Law Review, among other journals. Professor Reinert argued before the Supreme Court in Ashcroft v. Iqbal, and has appeared on behalf of parties and amicus curiae in many significant civil rights cases. In 2016 he became the director of the Center for Rights and Justice, which brings together the scholarship, programs and clinics at Cardozo engaged in public service, client advocacy and academic scholarship dealing with issues of fairness, equality, access to justice and transparency.
Professor Reinert graduated magna cum laude from New York University School of Law. Upon graduating from law school, he held two clerkships, first with the Hon. Harry T. Edwards, D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then with United States Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer.
Publications
LAW REVIEW ARTICLES
- Solitary Troubles, __ Notre D. L. Rev. __ (forthcoming 2018)
- Erie Step Zero, 85 Fordham L. Rev. __ (2017)
- The Second Circuit and Social Justice, 85 Fordham L. Rev. 73 (2016) (with Matthew Diller) [commissioned by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on the 125th Anniversary of the Court]
- Reconceptualizing the Eighth Amendment: Slaves, Prisoners, and “Cruel and Unusual Punishment,” 94 N.C. L. Rev. 817 (forthcoming 2016)
- Measuring the Impact of Plausibility Pleading, 101 Va. L. Rev. 2117 (2015)
- The Burdens of Pleading, 162 U. Pa. L. Rev. 1767 (2014)
- Screening Out Innovation: The Unrecognized Merits of Meritless Litigation, 89 Ind. L. J. 1191 (2014)
- Asking the First Question: Reframing Bivens after Minneci, 90 Wash. U. L. Rev. 1473 (2013) (with Lumen N. Mulligan)
- Revisiting “Special Needs” Theory via Airport Searches, 106 Nw. U. L. Rev. 1513 (2012); 106 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 207 (2012)
- Release as Remedy for Excessive Punishment, 53 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1575 (2012) (selected for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Criminology)
- Pleading as Information-Forcing, 75 Law & Contemp. Probs. 1 (2012)
- The Costs of Heightened Pleading, 86 Ind. L. J. 119 (2011)
- Does Qualified Immunity Matter? 8 U. St. Thomas L. J. 477 (2011)
- The Impact of Ashcroft v. Iqbal on Pleading, 43 Urb. Law. 559 (2011)
- Public Interest(s) and Fourth Amendment Enforcement, 2010 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1461 (2010) (adapted for republication in 38 Search & Seizure L. Rep. 45 (2011))
- Measuring the Success of Bivens Litigation and Its Consequences for the Individual Liability Model, 62 Stan. L. Rev. 809 (2010) (reprinted in Civil Rights Litigation and Attorney Fees Annual Handbook (Steven Saltzman & Barbara Wolvovitz eds., 2010))
- Procedural Barriers to Civil Rights Litigation and the Illusory Promise of Equity, 78 UMKC L. Rev. 931 (2010)
- Eighth Amendment Gaps: Can Conditions of Confinement Litigation Benefit from Proportionality Theory? 36 Fordham Urb. L. J. 53 (2009)
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
- Finding the Proper Measure for Conditions of Pretrial Confinement, Response, 161 U. Penn. L. Rev. PENNumbra 191 (2013), http://www.pennumbra.com/responses/response.php?rid=113
- National Security and the Shadows of Judicial “Common Sense,” 96 Iowa L. Rev. Bull. 1 (2010) (essay in response to Peter Margulies, Judging Myopia in Hindsight: Bivens Actions, National Security Decisions, and the Rule of Law, 96 Iowa L. Rev. 195 (2010))
- Accounting for the Limitations of Congress’ Enforcement Power, U. Chi. L. Rev. Legal Workshop (Oct. 25, 2010) (editorial in response to Richard Frankel, Regulating Privatized Government through § 1983, 76 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1449 (2009))
- The Legal System’s Misuse of Epidemiology, 87 Judicature 12 (2003) (with Arthur Bryant)
- Epidemiology in the Legal Arena and the Search for Truth, 154 Am. J. Epid. S27 (2001) (with Arthur Bryant)
- Note, The Right to Farm: Hog-Tied and Nuisance-Bound, 73 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 1694 (1998)
- Corruption of Previously Published Asbestos Research, 55 Arch. Envtl. Health 75 (2000) (with David S. Egilman)
- Asbestos Exposure and Lung Cancer: Asbestosis Is Not Necessary, 30 Am. J. Ind. Med. 398 (1996) (with David S. Egilman)
- The Asbestos TLV: Early Evidence of Inadequacy, 30 Am. J. Ind. Med. 369 (1996) (with David S. Egilman)
- The Origin and Development of the Asbestos Threshold Limit Value: Scientific Indifference and Corporate Influence, 25 Int. J. Health Serv. 667 (1995) (with David S. Egilman)
Contact Information
Cardozo School of Law
55 Fifth Avenue, Room 1005
New York, NY 10003
Current Courses
Alexander A. Reinert in the news
- Mar 28, 2018 Professor Reinert Presents "Civil Rights & Employment Law After Iqbal"
- Dec 13, 2017 NY Times: Professor Reinert's Lawsuit Over Solitary Confinement Practices Gets a Victory for the Plaintiffs
- Sep 7, 2017 Solitary Confinement in New York Prisons Drops in First Year of Settlement in Case Litigated by the New York Civil Liberties Union, Morrison & Foerster and Professor Alex Reinert
- Aug 25, 2017 Professor Reinert Settles Multi-Million Dollar Class Action Solitary Confinement Case Against NYC
- Jul 20, 2017 Professor Reinert Talks about "Stop and Frisk" with Radio Icon Scoot
- May 11, 2017 Professor Alexander Reinert Interviews Professor Brooke Coleman of Seattle Law About Her Article "One Percent Procedure"
- May 9, 2017 Cardozo Law's "The First 100 Days" Course Featured in Huffington Post
- Mar 17, 2017 Professor Alexander Reinert on Cardozo's Pop-up Class, The First 100 Days: The Trump Administration & The Rule of Law
- Mar 16, 2017 "What To Do With An Alt-Right White House": Professor Alexander Reinert in the Harvard Law and Policy Review
- Feb 10, 2017 Professor Alexander Reinert Comments in Reuters on President Trump's Possible Issuance of Revised Travel Ban
More from Alexander A. Reinert
- Oct 30, 2014 A Summary of Faculty Scholarly Work, 2013-14