Nelson primarily studies the development of federalism in the early United States and its downstream effects on modern federalism doctrines. His research lies at the intersection of constitutional law, federal jurisdiction, and conflict of laws.
His doctoral dissertation and his recent research investigate early constitutional litigation about bankruptcy and contract rights. In particular, Congress declined to exercise its enumerated power to make bankruptcy legislation for most of the 19th century. Without a federal bankruptcy system, state governments filled the vacuum and maintained their own “insolvency” systems to provide debtor relief. These separate systems were constitutionally questionable, and they generated conflict between creditors and debtors who were citizens of different states. While deciding actions to recover debts, the federal courts first theorized the limits of federal and state power over the economy.
As a law student, Nelson worked in the University of Texas School of Law’s Supreme Court Clinic, which successfully represented the death-row inmate John Henry Ramirez in the US Supreme Court case Ramirez v. Collier.
Nelson is admitted to practice law in Texas and is a former Minority Fellow of the American Political Science Association.
His work has appeared in the Texas Law Review and the Texas Review of Law & Politics.
