•  347
    The Right to Exclude Immigrants Does Not Imply the Right to Exclude Newcomers by Birth
    Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 14 (1). 2018.
    A recent challenge to statist arguments defending the right of states to exclude prospective immigrants maintains that such statist arguments prove too much. Specifically, the challenge argues that statist arguments, insofar as they are correct, entail that states may permissibily exclude current members' newcomers by birth, which seems to violate a widely held intuition that members' newcomers by birth ought automatically to be granted membership rights. The basic claim is that statist argument…Read more
  •  284
    Keeping the Friend in Epicurean Friendship
    Apeiron 54 (3): 385-410. 2021.
    There seems to be universal agreement among Epicurean scholars that friendship characterized by other-concern is conceptually incompatible with Epicureanism understood as a directly egoistic theory. I reject this view. I argue that once we properly understand the nature of friendship and the Epicurean conception of our final end, we are in a position to demonstrate friendship’s compatibility with, and centrality within, Epicureanism’s direct egoism.
  •  189
    Historic Injustice, Collective Agency, and Compensatory Duties
    Southwest Philosophy Review 35 (1): 79-89. 2019.
    A challenging question regarding compensation for historic injustices like slavery or colonialism is whether there is anyone to whom it would be just to ascribe duties of compensation given that allegedly all the perpetrators--the guilty parties--are dead. Some answer this question negatively, arguing it is wrong to ascribe to anyone compensatory duties for injustices committed by others who died multiple generations ago. This objection to compensation for historic injustice, which I call the Hi…Read more
  •  165
    Unauthorized Immigrants, Reasonable Expectations, and the Right to Regularization
    Social Theory and Practice 46 (4): 681-707. 2020.
    This article brings an account of reasonable expectations to bear on the question of when unauthorized immigrants have a right to be regularized—that is, to be formally guaranteed freedom from the threat of deportation. Contrary to the current literature, which implicitly relies on a flawed understanding of reasonable expectations, this article argues that only those unauthorized immigrants who have both been tacitly permitted by the state despite lacking formal authorization and have remained l…Read more
  •  156
    Forced Separation and the Wrong of Deportation
    Social Philosophy Today 36 125-140. 2020.
    This paper argues that liberal states are wrong to forcibly separate through deportation the unauthorized immigrant parents of member children and that states must therefore regularize such unauthorized immigrants. While most arguments for regularization focus on how deportation wrongs the unauthorized immigrants themselves, I ground my argument in how deportation wrongs the state’s members, namely the unauthorized immigrants’ member children. Specifically, forced separation through deportation …Read more
  •  54
    Privileged Citizens and the Right to Riot
    Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy 26 (3): 633-640. 2024.
    Avia Pasternak’s account of permissible political rioting includes a constraint that insists only oppressed citizens, and not privileged citizens, are permitted to riot when rioting is justified. This discussion note argues that Pasternak’s account, with which I largely agree, should be expanded to admit the permissibility of privileged citizens rioting alongside and in solidarity with oppressed citizens. The permissibility of privileged citizens participating in riots when rioting is justified …Read more
  •  14
    Reconciling the Right to Exclude with Liberal Ideals
    Radical Philosophy Review 26 (1): 145-150. 2023.