Position Title
Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law
- 530-752-5756
- cselmendorf@ucdavis.edu
- Legal Scholarship at SSRN
- Curriculum Vitae
- High Resolution Photo
Professor Elmendorf works in the areas of property law, election law, statutory interpretation, and administrative law, using both doctrinal and empirical methods. He is a leading authority on California land-use and housing law, and has also done widely noted work on public understanding of housing markets and opinion about housing policy. His research has been published in numerous top law, political science, economics, and planning journals, including the Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, New York University Law Review, Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, and the Journal of the American Planning Association. It has also been covered by major media outlets including The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Financial Times, Forbes, Bloomberg News, and CalMatters.
Elmendorf enjoys translating academic research and legal developments for popular audiences. He’s known for breaking down everything from knotty judicial opinions to pending legislation with long Twitter (𝕏) threads, and he’s written articles and op-eds for The Atlantic, Mother Jones, The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. Sometimes these various forms of public engagement come together, as when a Twitter thread about a housing controversy in San Francisco led to invited blog posts and op-eds, which he expanded into a law-review article, which engendered statutory reforms, which begat another Twitter thread and a webinar for practitioners.
Beyond the law school, Elmendorf serves on the advisory board of the Abundance Academic Network, a new initiative of Arnold Ventures to advance policy-minded research on housing, transportation, and clean-energy development. He has also served on working groups and task forces convened by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, and on the Legal Advisory Committee of the California Housing Defense Fund. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute.
- B.A. Economics, With Highest Honors, Oberlin College, 1994
- J.D. Yale Law School, 2001
- Law Clerk, Judge Guido Calabresi, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, 2002-2003.
- Elected to American Law Institute
- His paper, Auctioning the Upzone, 70 Case Western Res. L. Rev. 513 (2020), was selected for republication in Land Use and Environment Law Review (2023-24) as one of the year’s best articles about land use.
- Land Use and Housing
- Election Law
- State and Local Politics
- Administrative Law
- Statutory Interpretation
Publications
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Clayton Nall, Stan Oklobdzija. 2025. “The Folk Economics of Housing.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 39(2): 45–66.
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Clayton Nall & Stan Oklobdjiza. 2024. “What State Housing Policies Do Voters Want? Evidence from a Platform-Choice Experiment.” Journal of Political Institutions & Political Economy 5: 117–152.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Clayton Nall. 2024. “Plain Bagel Streamlining? Notes from the California Housing Wars.” Case Western Reserve Law Review 75: 263–332.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2024. “Lawyering Cities into Housing Shortages: The Curious Case of Discretionary Review Under the San Francisco City Charter.” NYU Environmental Law Journal 32: 291– 337.
Biber, Eric, Christopher S. Elmendorf, Nicholas J. Marantz & Moira O’Neill. 2024. “Just Look at the Map: Bounding Environmental Review of Housing Development in California.” Environmental Law 54: 221–313.
Monkkonen, Paavo, Michael Lens, Moira O’Neill, Christopher Elmendorf, Gregory Preston & Raine Robichaud. 2024. “Do Land Use Plans Affirmatively Further Fair Housing? Measuring Progress.” Journal of the American Planning Association 90: 247–260.
Marantz, Nicholas J., Christopher S. Elmendorf & Youjin Kim. 2023. “Where Will Accessory Dwelling Units Sprout Up When a State Lets Them Grow? Evidence From California.” Cityscape 25: 107–118.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Timothy G. Duncheon. 2023. “When Super-Statutes Collide: CEQA, the Housing Accountability Act, and Tectonic Change in Land Use Law.” Ecology Law Quarterly 49: 655–713.
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Marisa A. Abrajano & Kevin M. Quinn. 2023. “Measuring Perceived Skin Color: Spillover Effects and Likert-type Scales.” Journal of Politics 85: 320–327.
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Eric Biber, Paavo Monkkonen & Moira O’Neill. 2022. “‘I Would, If Only I Could’: How Cities Can Use California’s Housing Element Law to Overcome Neighborhood Resistance to New Housing.” Willamette Law Review 57: 221–252.
Wood, Abby K., Christopher S. Elmendorf, Douglas M. Spencer & Nicolas Napolio. 2022. “Mind the Participation Gap: Vouchers, Voting, and Visibility.” American Politics Research 50: 623–642.
Boudreau, Cheryl, Christopher S. Elmendorf & Scott A. MacKenzie. 2022. “The Civic Option: Using Experiments to Estimate the Effects of Consuming Information in Local Elections.” Journal of Experimental Political Science 10: 391–402
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Eric Biber, Paavo Monkkonen & Moira O’Neill. 2021. “State Administrative Review of Local Constraints on Housing Development: Improving the California Model.” Arizona Law Review 64: 609–677.
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Eric Biber, Paavo Monkkonen & Moira O’Neill. 2020. “Making It Work: Legal Foundations for Administrative Reform of California’s Housing Framework.” Ecology Law Quarterly 46: 973–1060.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Darien Shanske. 2020. “Auctioning the Upzone.” Case Western Reserve Law Review 70: 513–572.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2019. “Beyond the Double Veto: Housing Plans as Preemptive Intergovernmental Compacts.” UC Hastings Law Journal 71: 79–150.
Boudreau, Cheryl, Christopher S. Elmendorf & Scott A. MacKenzie. 2019. “Racial or Spatial Voting? The Effects of Candidate Ethnicity and Ethnic Group Endorsements in Local Elections.” American Journal of Political Science 63: 5–20.
Boudreau, Cheryl, Christopher S. Elmendorf & Scott A. MacKenzie. 2019. “Roadmaps to Representation: An Experimental Study of How Voter Education Tools Affect Citizen Decision Making.” Political Behavior 41: 1001–1024.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Abby K. Wood. 2018. “Elite Political Ignorance: Law, Data, and the 2 of 8 Representation of (Mis)Perceived Electorates.” UC Davis Law Review 52: 571–636.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2018. “From Educational Adequacy to Representational Adequacy: A New Template for Legal Attacks on Partisan Gerrymanders.” William & Mary Law Review 59: 1601–1680.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Darien Shanske. 2018. “Solving Problems No One Has Solved: Courts, Causal Inference, and the Right to Education.” University of Illinois Law Review 2018: 693–746.
Abrajano, Marisa, Kevin M. Quinn & Christopher S. Elmendorf. 2018. “Labels vs. Pictures: Treatment Mode Effects in Experiments About Discrimination.” Political Analysis 26: 20.
Elmendorf, Christopher S., Marisa Abrajano & Kevin M. Quinn. 2016. “Racially Polarized Voting.” University of Chicago Law Review 83: 587–692.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Douglas M. Spencer. 2015. “Administering Section 2 of the VRA After Shelby County.” Columbia Law Review 115: 2143–2217.
Boudreau, Cheryl, Christopher S. Elmendorf & Scott A. MacKenzie. 2015. “Lost in Space? Information Shortcuts, Spatial Voting, and Local Government Representation.” Political Research Quarterly 68: 843– 855.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2015. “Advisory Rulemaking and the Future of the Voting Rights Act.” Election Law Journal 14: 260–277.
Boudreau, Cheryl, Christopher S. Elmendorf & Scott A. MacKenzie. 2014. “Informing Electorates Via Election Law: An Experimental Study of Partisan Endorsements and Nonpartisan Voter Guides in Local Elections.” Election Law Journal 14: 2–22.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Douglas M. Spencer. 2014. “The Geography of Racial Stereotyping: Evidence and Implications for VRA Preclearance After Shelby County.” California Law Review 102: 1123–1180.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Douglas M. Spencer. 2013. “Are Ballot Titles Biased? Partisanship in California’s Supervision of Direct Democracy.” UC Irvine Law Review 3: 511–549.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & David Schleicher. 2013. “Informing Consent: Voter Ignorance, Political Parties, and Election Law.” University of Illinois Law Review 2013: 363–431.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & David Schleicher. 2012. “Districting for a Low-Information Electorate.” Yale Law Journal 121: 1846–1886.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2012. “What Kind of Discrimination Does the Voting Rights Act Target?” University of Pennsylvania Law Review Pennumbra 160: 357–365.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2012. “Making Sense of Section 2: Of Biased Votes, Unconstitutional Elections, and Common Law Statutes.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 160: 377–457.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Ethan J. Leib. 2012. “Why Party Democrats Need Popular Democracy and Popular Democrats Need Parties.” California Law Review 100: 69–113.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2011. “Empirical Legitimacy and Election Law.” In Race, Reform, and Regulatory Institutions: Recurring Puzzles in American Democracy, eds. Heather K. Gerken, Guy-Uriel E. Charles & Michael S. Kang, 123–145.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2011. “Refining the Democracy Canon.” Cornell Law Review 95: 1051– 1104.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. & Edward B. Foley. 2008. “Gatekeeping vs. Balancing in the Constitutional Law of Elections: Methodological Uncertainty on the High Court.” William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 17: 507–538.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2008. “Undue Burdens on Voter Participation: New Pressures for a Structural Theory of the Right to Vote?” Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 35: 643–712.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2007. “Structuring Judicial Review of Electoral Mechanics: Explanations and Opportunities.” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 156: 313–394.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2007. “N.Y. State Bd. of Elections v. Torres: Is the Right to Vote a Constitutional Constraint on Party Nominating Conventions?” Election Law Journal 6: 399–412.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2007. “Advisory Counterparts to Constitutional Courts.” Duke Law Journal 56: 953–1045.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2006. “Election Commissions and Electoral Reform: An Overview.” Election Law Journal 5: 425–446.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2005. “Representation Reinforcement Through Advisory Commissions: The Case of Election Law.” NYU Law Review 80: 1366–1448.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2004. “Securing Ecological Investments on Other People’s Land: A Transaction Costs Perspective.” Natural Resources Journal 44: 529–561.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2003. “Ideas, Incentives, Gifts, and Governance: Toward Conservation Stewardship of Private Land, In Cultural and Psychological Perspective.” University of Illinois Law Review 2003: 423–505.
Elmendorf, Christopher S. 2001. “State Courts, Citizen Suits, and the Enforcement of Federal Environmental Law by Non-Article III Plaintiffs.” Yale Law Journal 110: 1003–1044.