John Oldham McGinnis is an American legal scholar at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law and author of over 90 academic and popular articles and essays. His popular writings have been published in The Wall Street Journal , National Review , and Policy Review .
McGinnis teaches and writes on constitutional and international law. In constitutional law, he has focused especially on majority and supermajority rules. In international law, he has focused on the question of the proper role of international law in United States law.
McGinnis graduated from the Phillips Exeter Academy in 1975, and earned a B.A. from Harvard University in 1978, an M.A. from Balliol College, Oxford, in 1980, and a J.D., magna cum laude , from Harvard Law School in 1983. In 1997 he received the Paul M. Bator Award, which is awarded annually by the Federalist Society to an "outstanding legal scholar" under forty. McGinnis worked in the Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice from 1985 to 1991. He has given 10 testimonies before congress. McGinnis was also a litigation associate at the prestigious Sullivan & Cromwell, and a clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
McGinnis's government posts are currently as a member of the National Advisory Committee for the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, and as a roster member of the United States Panelists for Resolution of World Trade Organization Disputes. He is a member of the conservative Federalist Society.
McGinnis is a co-author of a law review article stating that the majority of law school faculty members donate more to Democrats than to Republicans. [1] He uses this to attack the "viewpoint diversity" justification that the U.S. Supreme Court used to permit law schools to give racial minorities an advantage in their admissions processes. His argument is that law schools are not, and probably should not be, committed to political viewpoint diversity in the hiring process (implying that they should not use affirmative action-like techniques in recruiting and admitting students).
McGinnis has published several books. In Accelerating Democracy: Transforming Governance Through Technology (Princeton University Press, 2013) he argues that rapidly changing information technology can improve policy. In Originalism and the Good Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2013) he and Mike Rappaport contend that interpreting the Constitution according to its original meaning continues to have beneficial consequences today.
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it has chapters at more than 200 law schools and features student, lawyer, and faculty divisions; the lawyers division comprises more than 70,000 practicing attorneys in ninety cities. Through speaking events, lectures, and other activities, it provides a forum for legal experts of opposing conservative views to interact with members of the legal profession, the judiciary, and the legal academy. It is one of the most influential legal organizations in the United States.
The University of Chicago Law School is the law school of the University of Chicago, a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time faculty and hosts more than 600 students in its Juris Doctor program, while also offering the Master of Laws, Master of Studies in Law and Doctor of Juridical Science degrees in law.
Laurence Henry Tribe is an American legal scholar known for his studies of United States constitutional law. Tribe was a professor at Harvard Law School from 1968 until his retirement in 2020. He currently holds the position of Carl M. Loeb University Professor Emeritus.
John Hart Ely was an American legal scholar. He was a professor of law at Yale Law School from 1968 to 1973, Harvard Law School from 1973 to 1982, Stanford Law School from 1982 to 1996, and at the University of Miami Law School from 1996 until his death. From 1982 until 1987, he was the 9th dean of Stanford Law School.
Akhil Reed Amar is an American legal scholar known for his expertise in U.S. constitutional law. He is the Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University, where he is a leading scholar of originalism, the U.S. Bill of Rights, and criminal procedure.
Charles Anthony Fried was an American jurist and lawyer. He served as Solicitor General of the United States under President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1989. He was a professor at Harvard Law School and a visiting professor at Columbia Law School. He also served on the board of the nonpartisan group, the Campaign Legal Center.
Derrick Albert Bell Jr. was an American lawyer, legal scholar, and civil rights activist. Bell first worked for the U.S. Justice Department, then the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he supervised over 300 school desegregation cases in Mississippi.
Charles J. "Chuck" Cooper is an appellate attorney and litigator in Washington, D.C., where he is a founding member and chairman of the law firm Cooper & Kirk, PLLC. He was named by The National Law Journal as one of the 10 best civil litigators in Washington. The New York Times described him as "one of Washington’s best-known lawyers." He has represented prominent American political figures, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in response to the alleged Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections; Attorney General John Ashcroft; and former National Security Adviser and United States Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton.
Mark Victor Tushnet is an American legal scholar. He specializes in constitutional law and theory, including comparative constitutional law, and is currently the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Tushnet is identified with the critical legal studies movement.
Bruce P. Frohnen is a Professor of Law at Ohio Northern University College of Law, where he teaches courses in Public and Constitutional Law, Jurisprudence, and Legal Profession.
Hadley P. Arkes is an American political scientist and the Edward N. Ney Professor of Jurisprudence and American Institutions Emeritus at Amherst College, where he has taught since 1966. He is currently the founder and director of the James Wilson Institute on Natural Rights & the American Founding in Washington, D.C.
Paul Finkelman is an American legal historian. He is the author or editor of more than 50 books on American legal and constitutional history, slavery, general American history and baseball. In addition, he has authored more than 200 scholarly articles on these and many other subjects. From 2017 - 2022, Finkelman served as the President and Chancellor of Gratz College, Melrose Park, Pennsylvania.
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz is an American constitutional law scholar, professor, and Broadway producer. He writes and teaches in the fields of constitutional law, statutory interpretation, and federal jurisdiction. He is the son of billionaire investor and philanthropist Robert Rosenkranz.
David P. Currie was an American legal scholar who was the Edward H. Levi Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, noted for his histories of the Constitution in Congress and the Supreme Court, his casebooks on federal courts and conflict of laws. He was the son of legal scholar Brainerd Currie. His wife was Barbara Flynn Currie, Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives.
John Francis Manning is an American legal scholar who serves as the provost of Harvard University. He is the Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School (HLS), where he is a scholar of administrative and constitutional law. From 2017 to 2024, he was the 13th dean of Harvard Law School.
The Harvard Law & Policy Review is a law journal and the official journal of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization. It was established in 2007. The journal publishes two printed editions per year, as well as additional content posted exclusively online. It is edited by Harvard Law School students and typically has a staff of approximately 75 students. The journal publishes articles presenting progressive ideas for law and policy written by legal scholars, policymakers, practitioners, and students.
Paul Brest is an American legal scholar who is a former president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and a former dean of Stanford Law School. He is credited with coining the name originalism to describe a particular approach to interpreting the United States Constitution.
Michael J. Gerhardt is the Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of North Carolina School of Law in Chapel Hill. He is also the director of the Center on Law and Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is an expert on constitutional law, separation of powers, and the legislative process. He is a Scholar in Residence at the National Constitution Center and visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. On December 2, 2019, it was announced that Gerhardt would testify before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the constitutional grounds for presidential impeachment in the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump.
William Patrick Baude is an American legal scholar who specializes in U.S. constitutional law. He currently serves as the Harry Kalven Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School and is the director of its Constitutional Law Institute. He is a scholar of constitutional law and originalism.
Ganesh Sitaraman is an American legal scholar. He is a professor of law at Vanderbilt University, where he has also been a Chancellor Faculty Fellow and the director of the Program in Law and Government. He studies constitutional and foreign relations law.
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