AREAS OF RESEARCH
Constitutional Law, Executive Branch Legal Interpretation, Habeas Corpus and Executive Detention, Separation of Powers
Trevor Morrison serves as Dean of NYU School of Law, where he is the Eric M. and Laurie B. Roth Professor of Law. Before coming to NYU, he was on the faculties of Cornell Law School (2003-08) and Columbia Law School (2008-13). Morrison’s research and teaching interests are in constitutional law, federal courts, and the law of the executive branch. He was previously a law clerk to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1998-99) and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the US Supreme Court (2002-03). Between the two clerkships, he was a Bristow Fellow in the US Justice Department’s Office of the Solicitor General (1999-2000), an attorney-adviser in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (2000-01), and an associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering (2001-02). Morrison served as associate counsel to President Barack Obama in 2009. He received a BA with honors in history from the University of British Columbia in 1994 and a JD from Columbia Law School in 1998. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute and the Council on Foreign Relations.
We will read and discuss several recent books on the Supreme Court and certain of its personnel. The proposed reading list, which we will discuss at our first meeting, includes: Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong, The Brethren; Edward Lazarus, Closed Chambers; Jeffrey Toobin, The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court; and Joan Biskupic, The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts.
This course provides an overview of American Constitutional law. It focuses on issues of equality and individual liberty, federalism, judicial review, separation of powers, and the allocation of authority between the federal and state governments. It places questions of doctrine and theory in an historic, social and political context.
Hybrid Teaching Notes
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