Junior scholars don’t often get published in an esteemed peer-reviewed law journal. Even fewer do it after publishing an article in USA Today while clerking for a federal court. Matt Preston, JD ’21, a Sentinel of Freedom, AMVETS Scholar, and Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar, has managed to accomplish all three career milestones fresh from the University of Michigan Law School.
The Belmont Law Review published Matt’s article, The Tweet Test: Attributing Presidential Intent to Agency in Fall 2022. His article is an offshoot of independent research he started after a law professor piqued his interest in the implications of presidential tweets on federal agency actions. Matt consulted a federal circuit judge and numerous law professors for tips on writing it. “The judge red-pilled me regarding legal writing,” Matt said. “For example, I learned how word choice could change the power of a sentence and,” Matt laughed, “how to hyphenate compound modifiers.” “My professors showed me techniques like writing all the topic sentences to read like a complete thought,” Matt continued.
Matt did not expect to hear from any journals. “As a law clerk, I’m busy, so it was easy not to focus on the wait. However, I’ll admit to getting anxious after not hearing anything for a while. But then I got the email from Belmont!”
The Editor-in-Chief of the Belmont Law Review found Matt’s article to be “insightful and an apt solution to bridging the gap between agency action and presidential intent.” From an attention-catching title to “an incredible discussion of the problems facing litigants seeking to challenge administrative action,” Belmont was so “honored to feature such a strong piece as part of the first decennial volume.” They guaranteed Matt’s article would be on page one.
Ultimately, it was Matt’s “thorough knowledge of administrative law” that demonstrated his “strength as a scholar.” That strength has resonated with his article being cited in numerous federal court opinions within days of publication.
In sum, the article focuses on presidential intent—a significant legal concern regarding controversial presidential tweets—and its impact on federal regulations, which far outnumber federal laws. Matt’s novel “Tweet Test” is an apolitical standard to determine when to attribute the president’s intent to agency action. The agency's action must be invalidated if the president’s intent is attributable and unlawful. The article first discusses the history of Twitter’s impact on the presidency. That discussion includes the landmark case Department of Homeland Security v. Regents of the University of California, which “strangled the likelihood of presidential statements invalidating agency action.”
Matt loves writing and says he is working on a couple of ideas for new articles. He currently serves as a judicial law clerk in the Eastern District of Michigan. Next, he will clerk in the Michigan Supreme Court, followed by the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Matt is the oldest of seven Latino siblings. He was born in Florida and grew up in Texas, Mexico, and Indiana. He served in two military branches before using the G.I. Bill to attend college at IUPUI, where he graduated summa cum laude with three majors and minors. Then Matt attended Michigan Law, where he was the President of the Veterans Society, a senior editor of the Michigan Law Review, and graduated cum laude.
People interested in learning more about Matt Preston can check out his LinkedIn, Twitter, or another article he wrote in USA Today. See also Matthew N. Preston II, The Tweet Test: Attributing Presidential Intent to Agency Action, 10 Belmont L. Rev. 1 (2022).
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