Kate A. Shaw

Not to be confused with Kate Shaw (Australian activist and professor of urban planning).

Kate Shaw is a professor of law at the Yeshiva University Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, a Supreme Court contributor for ABC News, and co-host of the podcast Strict Scrutiny.

Career

After graduating in 2006 from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, Shaw clerked for Judge Richard A. Posner in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court to Justice John Paul Stevens. Shaw worked at the White House Counsel’s Office during the Obama Administration, from 2009-2011. Since 2011, Shaw has been a member of the Cardozo School of Law faculty; she teaches Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and courses on the Supreme Court, legislation, antitrust, and gender and reproductive rights. She is a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises and of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS).

Media commentary

Professor Shaw has worked for ABC News as an analyst of the Supreme Court since 2015. Her legal and political commentary has also appeared in publications including the New York Times, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post. Shaw has commented on shifts in American jurisprudence, political machinations in Washington and national security, and Supreme Court affairs. In an interview by New York Times podcast correspondent Ezra Klein in July 2022, Shaw explained the historical rightward shift in jurisprudence and conservative political strategies that led to the current ultraconservative Supreme Court.

During the Trump administration, Shaw commented on various forms of legal jeopardy faced by the then-President: legal challenges to president's substantive policy initiatives (e.g., DACA, the Muslim travel ban, and environmental policy changes); investigations into members of the cabinet and White House staff; and Trump's personal legal exposure, in a podcast interview. She also wrote about the dangers of Trump's political speech leading up to the 2020 election, and about the causes of the January 6th riots.

Scholarship

Shaw is a prolific legal scholar. Her work has appeared in law journals such as Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Texas Law Review, and Northwestern University Law Review. In a recent article, Shaw criticized the United States Electoral College for its distorting effects on democracy, laid out possible reforms, and argued for its abolishment. In other commentary, Shaw has argued that the January 6 riots would not have taken place in the absence of the Electoral College.

Shaw has also written about gender and reproductive rights. She recently co-edited a book about judicial decisions on reproductive rights, including cases related to pregnancy, abortion and forced sterilization.

Biography and education

Shaw went to college at Brown University, where she majored in religious and gender studies, graduating magna cum laude with a B.A. in 2001. She then attended Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, where she was editor-in-chief for the Northwestern Law Review in 2005-06. She graduated with a Juris doctor magna cum laude in 2006, at the top of her class.

Shaw met Chris Hayes, now a reporter at MSNBC, when they were both undergraduates at Brown; they married in 2007. Shaw and Hayes lived in Washington, D.C., before moving to New York City, where All in With Chris Hayes is produced. They have three children.

Her father is veteran Chicago reporter Andy Shaw, who also worked for ABC News.