With more than 30 faculty members who are experts in constitutional law, UVA Law School offers an unparalleled variety of lecture courses, seminars and clinics in the field. Courses cover topics such as the First Amendment, administrative law, presidential power, federal courts, police and the law, election law, civil rights, separation of powers, race and the law, and more.
For the over half-million people currently homeless in the United States, the U.S. Constitution has historically provided little help: it is strongly...
For the over half-million people currently homeless in the United States, the U.S. Constitution has historically provided little help: it is strongly...
The Supreme Court has twice held since 2020 that statutory restrictions on the President’s removal power violate Article II of the U.S. Constitution...
Constitutional theory is a mess. Disagreements about originalism and living constitutionalism have become intractable. Constitutional theorists make...
Moore v. United States raises the question whether unrealized gains, such as an increase in property value or a stock portfolio, constitute “incomes...
Gradualism should have won out in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, exerting gravitational influence on the majority and dissenters alike. In general...
The United States has granted reparations for a variety of historical injustices, from imprisonment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War...
Today, legal culture is shaped by One Big Question: should courts, particularly the US Supreme Court, have a lot of power? This question is affecting...
This Essay reports data on the impact of Bruen and its predecessor, Heller, on gun rights cases. Put mildly, the impact was substantial, not only in...
The decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard [SFFA], invalidating the use of race in college admissions, reignites...
At points in American history, there have been significant, even massive shifts in constitutional understandings, doctrines, and practices. Apparently...
In our increasingly polarized society, claims that prosecutions are politically motivated, racially motivated, or just plain arbitrary are more common...
When federal judges are called on to adjudicate separation-of-powers disputes, they are not mere arbiters of the separation of powers. By resolving a...
Religion today offers plaintiffs a ready path to disobey laws without consequence. Examples of such disobedience abound. In the past few years alone...
Do legal concepts alter how we understand the past and present? The jurisprudence of race suggests that they do. For several decades, federal courts...
A division exists between scholars who claim that Congress made only limited delegations to executive officials in the early Republic, and those who...
Distinguished Fellow, Karsh Center for Law and Democracy
Lecturer
Curriculum
The Law School’s curriculum features two concentrations with courses in constitutional law and legal history. The following is a list of courses offered during 2022-25. Numbers in parentheses indicate which academic year(s) the courses were offered, i.e., 2022-23 is coded (23), 2023-24 is (24) and 2024-25 is (25). (SC) stands for short course and (YR) stands for yearlong.
Courses and Seminars
Administrative Law (23,24,25) Advanced Administrative Law (SC) (23) Advanced Topics in Federal Courts Seminar (23) Advanced Topics in the First Amendment (Religion Clauses) (25) After Dobbs (SC) (23) Agencies in Court (SC) (25) Appellate Litigation Clinic (YR) (23,24,25) Business and Governmental Tort Liability (23) Civil Rights and Antidiscrimination Law (23,25) Civil Rights Litigation (23,24,25) Civil War and the Constitution (24) Climate and Debt (24) Comparative Constitutional Law (23,24,25) Comparative Freedom of Speech Law Seminar (24,25) Congress, Oversight and the Separation of Powers (SC) (24) Constitutional Law and Economics (23,24) Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Religion (23,24,25) Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Speech and Press (23,24,25) Constitutional Law II: Poverty (23) Constitutional Law II: Survey of Civil Liberties (23,24) Constitutionalism: Nation, Culture and Constitutions (23,24) Courts (23,24) Criminal Adjudication (23,24,25) Criminal Investigation (23,24,25) Criminal Procedure Survey (23,24,25) Designing Democracy: Participation (23) Designing Democracy: Representation (24) Education Law Survey (23) Federal Courts (23,24,25) Federal Sentencing (SC) (23,24,25) Federalism (SC) (23,24) Founders and Foes (SC) (23) History of American Federalism (23,25) History of the American Administrative State (24) International Arbitration (24) Law and Inequality Colloquium (23,24,25) Law and Riots (23,24,25) Law of the Police I: Rules, Rights and Regulation (23,25) Law, Inequality and Education Reform (25) Legislation (23,24) Legislation and Regulation (23,25) Litigating the 2024 Presidential Election (25) Monetary Constitution Seminar (23,24,25) Monument Litigation (SC) (25) Native American Law (24) Organizational DEI Programs (SC) (24) Pain and the Law (25) Parental Choice in K-12 Education (SC) (23) Perspectives on Sovereignty - Native American Law (23,25) Practical Perspectives on Policing: Fair and Effective Policymaking by Law Enforcement (SC) (24) Privacy (23,24,25) Privacy Law and Theory Seminar (23,24,25) Privacy Torts (24,25) Property, the Police Power and Emergencies (23,24,25) Public Law Colloquium (25) Race, Education and Opportunity (23) Racial Justice and Law (23,24,25) Regulation of Political Advocacy Seminar (24,25) Regulation of the Political Process (23,25) Regulatory Law and Policy (23,25) Religious Freedom and Reproductive Rights (24) Religious Freedom: Current Challenges (24) Reproductive Rights and Justice (SC) (24,25) School Desegregation, School Integration (24) SCOTUS: Opacity and Privilege (SC) (25) Second Amendment and Gun Violence Colloquium (25) Separation of Powers in the Federal Courts Seminar (23,24) State Attorneys General (24,25) State Constitutionalism (25) Supreme Court Justices and the Art of Judging (23,24) Supreme Court: October Term (24,25) The Constitution, Democracy and U.S. History (25) The Executive Branch: Comparative and Political Aspects (SC) (24) The Great Writ (SC) (24,25) The January 6th Investigation and How Courts Can Shape Congress’ Power to Investigate (SC) (24) The Institutional Supreme Court (SC) (24) The Mueller Report and the Role of the Special Counsel (SC) (23,24,25) The Right to Protest (SC) (24)
In the wake of a shifting U.S. Supreme Court, University of Virginia School of Law professor Saikrishna Prakash’s new paper with Cass Sunstein looks at how and why radical constitutional change occurs.
Stanford Law School professor Pamela S. Karlan, an expert on voting and the political process and a former UVA Law professor, delivers the McCorkle Lecture.
Students in the Appellate Litigation, First Amendment and Supreme Court Litigation clinics grapple with constitutional issues from real or potential litigation. These clinics often give students a firm grounding in issues they may tackle as clerks or as practicing attorneys.
Appellate Litigation Clinic
This yearlong clinic allows 12 students to engage in the hands-on practice of appellate litigation through actual cases before various federal circuit and/or state courts of appeals. The students are teamed up and assigned to handle primary responsibility for work on at least one appellate case during the course of the year. In addition, the students work together as a small law firm to provide secondary-level assistance to each other.
Students work on cases that have potential to provide real and concrete relief and legal support to people and communities that have been harmed by the criminalization of poverty and other forms of discrimination or deprivation of rights.
Run in conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and the law firm Baker Hostetler, the yearlong First Amendment Clinic gives students practical legal experience involving timely free speech and press issues. Students work in teams to conduct legal research, meet with clients and co-counsel, and draft legal memoranda and briefs. Assignments typically involve appellate-level litigation, although there are occasional trial-level opportunities. Students also work on a variety of non-litigation projects, such as reviewing proposed municipal ordinances for potential First Amendment flaws.
Working in teams, students in this yearlong clinic handle actual cases, from seeking Supreme Court review to briefing on the merits. Students identify candidates for Supreme Court review; draft petitions for certiorari, amicus merits briefs and party merits briefs; and attend moots and Supreme Court arguments.
During his Constitutional Law course, UVA Law professor Bertrall Ross discusses the history of the 13th and 14th Amendments, the Dred Scott case and the Slaughter-House cases.
Student organizations such as the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society often host speakers on constitutional law topics and provide networking opportunities for those interested in the field. Recent events have included a talk focusing on the anatomy of a Supreme Court case by an experienced litigator, a lecture by the Obama campaign general counsel Robert Bauer '76 on the anti-election-reform movement, and the annual Supreme Court roundup, in which Virginia Law professors analyzes cases from the past court term.
In a new book, Professor George Rutherglen of the University of Virginia School of Law looks at three of the most high-profile recent Supreme Court decisions — on abortion, affirmative action and religious accommodations — and attempts to predict how they might play out in future employment litigation.
Does the U.S. Supreme Court need more oversight in light of recent ethics concerns? UVA Law professors Amanda Frost and Richard M. Re join host Dean Risa Goluboff to discuss whether more rules are needed.
A new paper co-authored by Professor Mitu Gulati of the University of Virginia School of Law shows that the U.S. Supreme Court is increasingly dominated by a handful of elite lawyers who can influence the final decision and the path of public policy.
Constitutional litigation scholar Pamela S. Karlan will discuss recent challenges to government accountability for the McCorkle Lecture at the University of Virginia School of Law on Feb. 24.
Faculty colleagues of University of Virginia School of Law professor Frederick Schauer, who died earlier this month, recall their favorite works and how his scholarship influenced them.
The University of Virginia School of Law community remembers Professor Frederick Schauer, a world-renowned free speech and constitutional law expert who also wrote influential works on evidence, rules and legal theory.
Professor Amanda Frost of the University of Virginia School of Law examines proposals to enact term limits and a binding code of ethics for U.S. Supreme Court justices.
New courses offered this fall at the University of Virginia School of Law include Artificial Intelligence and Democracy, International Settlement of Disputes, and Single People and the Law.
In light of the recent Grants Pass ruling, Professors Kevin Cope and Mila Versteeg at the University of Virginia School of Law explain how courts have shifted public policy on the homeless.
In the wake of a shifting U.S. Supreme Court, University of Virginia School of Law professor Saikrishna Prakash’s new paper with Cass Sunstein looks at how and why radical constitutional change occurs.
Take a summer road trip through local “landmarks” in case law throughout Virginia and Washington, D.C., selected and summarized by University of Virginia School of Law faculty.
Meet Dean Leslie Kendrick ’06, who brings her expertise gained from serving as vice dean — as well her knowledge of freedom of speech, torts law and John Milton — to her new role at the University of Virginia School of Law.
In a new book, Professor George Rutherglen of the University of Virginia School of Law looks at three of the most high-profile recent Supreme Court decisions — on abortion, affirmative action and religious accommodations — and attempts to predict how they might play out in future employment litigation.
University of Virginia law professor A. E. Dick Howard ’61, who is retiring as the longest-serving professor in the University’s history, helped reshape Virginia’s constitution and those from around the world.
Roger L. Gregory, the first Black judge to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and this year’s recipient of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law, explained his view of the Constitution and the value of collegiality in a talk at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Two professors at the University of Virginia School of Law join the “Common Law” podcast to discuss how their research into the past, from the Civil War era to the 1960s, helps us understand today’s legal landscape.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Kimberly Jenkins Robinson took her seminar students to the U.S. Supreme Court to meet her law school roommate, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Sean Gray ’24 and Lauren McNerney ’24 recently won their case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit through the Appellate Litigation Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law.
Judge Roger L. Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit gives a talk and participates in a Q&A to mark receiving the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law. Dean Risa Goluboff served as moderator for the event.
Recent events have raised questions about the reach of presidential powers through executive orders. Can an executive order end birthright citizenship despite longstanding Supreme Court precedent supporting it? Can a president abolish an independent agency? Is the work of the Department of Government Efficiency, which has targeted federal programs and jobs for elimination, constitutional? To provide an opportunity for students and faculty to discuss these issues, the Karsh Center will host a series of three lunchtime sessions. This event, featuring Professors Payvand Ahdout and Saikrishna Prakash, is the third in the series. Lunch will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis.
Speakers will include many prominent scholars in the field of originalism and the general law, including Professors Will Baude of the University of Chicago Law School, Randy Barnett of Georgetown University Law Center, Jud Campbell of Stanford Law School, Steve Sachs of Harvard Law School, Dan Epps of Washington University School of Law, and John Harrison, Julia Mahoney and Lawrence Solum of UVA Law.
“10 Years of Obergefell” will commemorate the nearly 10 years since the landmark 2015 Obergefell decision. The event will include faculty panelists alongside Susan Baker Manning ’98, who authored an amicus brief in the decision. The discussion seeks to provide both historical and cultural context for the case while addressing the key constitutional issues highlighted in the ruling.
Edwin S. Kneedler ’74, who has served as a U.S. deputy solicitor general for more than three decades, will speak at the Law School in honor of receiving the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law. Sponsored jointly by the University of Virginia and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, the nonprofit organization that owns and operates Monticello, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medals are UVA’s highest external honors. Kneedler has argued over 150 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court — more than any other currently practicing attorney. He became deputy solicitor general in 1993 and served as acting solicitor general in early 2009. Kneedler joined the Office of the Solicitor General in 1979 after working for four years in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. Lunch will be served on a first-come, first served basis beginning at 12:45 p.m.
Stanford Law School professor Pamela S. Karlan, an expert on voting and the political process and a former UVA Law professor, delivers the McCorkle Lecture.
