Victoria G. Litman

Professor Litman is a national expert on cannabis and psychedelic law and policy with expertise in religious freedom, tax, and federalism issues. From 2023-2026, she was affiliated with the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law and Policy, Bioethics, and Biotechnology at Harvard Law School, first as an Affiliated Researcher with the Project on Psychedelic Law and Regulation (POPLAR) and later as a Fellow contributing to POPLAR and the Project on Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE). Professor Litman's analysis and commentary about drug law have been featured in a variety of venues including the Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law, a Cambridge University Press edited volume, Harvard's Bill of Health, the Cato Institute's Regulation magazine, and NPR's Marketplace. She previously practiced as a nonprofit tax attorney, advising cannabis and psychedelic organizations on tax-exempt status.

Beyond drug law, her scholarship focuses on both federalism and law and religion. Through her work on Post-Supremacy Federalism, Professor Litman conceptualizes the shifting dynamic in American federalism. This new dynamic results from a retreat of federal power without a repeal of federal statutes and its consequences include instability and the threat of snapback enforcement. This theory is introduced in "The Retreat of Federal Power and the Rise of Post-Supremacy Federalism" published in the Cleveland State Law Review and summarized in a Cato Institute Regulation feature, "The Rise of Post-Supremacy Federalism." She is working on a follow-up piece conceptualizing the varieties of federal retreat and the range of state responses to this new dynamic.

Her law and religion scholarship includes "Rethinking the Religious Purpose Test After Catholic Charities Bureau: The Sincerity-Then-Standards Framework" (Roger Williams University Law Review), which proposes a two-step framework for courts and agencies evaluating religious exemptions: presuming the sincerity of an organization's religious self-identification, then applying neutral, conduct-based standards to what the organization actually does, an approach drawing on the conduct-based logic of the federal Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT). Professor Litman is working on a piece expanding this framework in the context of clergy employment contracts and the ministerial exemption.

Prior to joining the faculty at Stetson, Professor Litman was a Visiting Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law where she taught courses in Cannabis Law, Psychedelic Law, First Amendment, Constitutional Law, and Torts.

She holds a BA in Religion, an M.Div. (concentration in Religion and Law), a JD, and an LL.M. in Taxation.