Ph.D., Yale University, expected 2026
J.D., Yale Law School
M.A & M.Phil., Yale University
B.A., Columbia University
Gender and Sexuality Law, Theory, and History
First Amendment—Speech and Religion Law
Anti-Discrimination Law
United States Legal History
Law & Social Movements
Constitutional Law
Kate Redburn (they/them) is a legal historian with expertise in anti-discrimination law and the First Amendment. Their research links history, gender studies, and law to understand the evolving relationship between doctrine, identity, and political economy in the postwar United States. They have written on the rise of religious objection to anti-discrimination law, transgender constitutional history, and regulation of non-normative families.
Redburn joined Columbia Law School as an academic fellow and lecturer in law in 2021 and was appointed associate professor of law on July 1, 2025. Prior to joining the faculty, they clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and helped found the Law and Political Economy Project. They are a graduate of Yale Law School and will soon complete a Ph.D. in history at Yale.
Redburn’s academic work has been published or is forthcoming in the Harvard Law Review, California Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Yale Law Journal, and Law and History Review. They also write essays and book reviews about the history of sexuality, transgender politics, and constitutional law that have appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, CityLab, Dissent, and other publications. In 2025, they were named Emerging Scholar of the Year by the Yale Law Journal.
Los Angeles Times: “To Protect Transgender Rights in the Future, We Must Look to the Past,” (with Brianne Felsher and Shay Olmstead)
The New York Times: “All Americans Have the Right to Dress Exactly How They Want”
Law and Political Economy Blog: “The Law and Political Economy of Religious Freedom”
Bloomberg: “Why Are Zoning Laws Defining What Constitutes a Family?”
New York Magazine: “The Trans-Rights Showdown at the Supreme Court”
New York Magazine: “How Trump Could Attack Trans Rights”
The Washington Post: “New Anti-Drag Laws Mirror Cross-Dressing Bans From the 1800s: ‘Déjà vu’”
The New Yorker: “Trump’s Orders Sow Chaos Inside the Nation’s Enforcer of Equal Opportunity”
The Atlantic: “Where Living With Friends Is Still Technically Illegal”