Stephen Griffin

W.R. Irby Chair; Rutledge C. Clement Jr. Professor in Constitutional Law

Center on Law and the Economy
Phone
(504) 865-5910
Office Address
Weinmann Hall, Suite 230 F
Stephen Griffin

Biography

Stephen Griffin specializes in constitutional theory and history. His work emphasizes understanding American constitutional law from an interdisciplinary, historical point of view that is theoretically informed, and he tries to build bridges between scholars in law and political science.

Griffin, who joined the Tulane Law faculty in 1989, is the author of American Constitutionalism: From Theory to Politics (Princeton University Press 1996), Long Wars and the Constitution (Harvard University Press 2013) and Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform (University Press of Kansas 2015). He also co-edited a reader now in its fourth edition, "Constitutional Theory: Arguments and Perspectives" (Lexis 2014). His writing, which includes more than 40 articles, book chapters and reviews on constitutional law and theory, has been cited in political science and history journals as well as law reviews.

He received the Sumter Marks Award for his scholarly publications in 2000 and the Felix Frankfurter Distinguished Teaching Award, the Law School’s highest teaching award, from the Class of 2002. He was Tulane Law School’s Vice Dean of Academic Affairs in 2001-04 and 2006-09 and Interim Dean in 2009-10. 

He is a member of the American Political Science Association and has chaired the Association of American Law Schools section on Constitutional Law. He helped organize a joint AALS/APSA Conference on Constitutional Law held in 2002. Before being hired at Tulane, he was a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago and research instructor in law at New York University.

Publications

Selected Publications

  • “Understanding Informal Constitutional Change,” 1 Journal of Institutional Studies 1 (2015)(Revista Estudos Institucionais, Brazil)
  • “Zeisberg’s Relational Conception of War Authority: Convergence and Divergence in Achieving a New Understanding of War Powers,” 95 Boston University Law Review 1235 (2015)
  • “A Bibliography of Executive Branch War Powers Opinions Since 1950,” 87 Tulane Law Review 649 (2013)
  • “Watergate and Vietnam: The Cold War Origins of a Constitutional Crisis,” 16 Chapman Law Review 31 (2012) 
  • “The National Security Constitution and the Bush Administration,” 120 Yale L.J. Online 367 (2011)
  • “California Constitutionalism: Trust in Government and Direct Democracy,” 11 Univ. of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 551 (2009)
  • “Rebooting Originalism,” 2008 University of Illinois Law Review 1185
  • “Stop Federalism Before It Kills Again: Reflections on Hurricane Katrina,” 21 St. John’s Journal of Legal Commentary 527 (2007) (invited article)
  • “Judicial Supremacy and Equal Protection in a Democracy of Rights,” 4 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 281 (2002) (invited article)
  • “Scholars and Public Debates: A Reply to Devins and Farnsworth,” 82 Boston University Law Review 227 (2002)
  • “Presidential Immunity from Criminal Process,” 5 Widener Law Symposium Journal 49 (2000) (invited article)
  • “Constitutional Theory Transformed,” 108 Yale Law Journal 2115 (1999)
  • “Judicial Review and Democracy Revisited,” 95 APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 64 (Spring 1996) (guest editor for this issue)
  • “The Problem of Constitutional Change,” 70 Tulane Law Review 2121 (1996)
  • “Constitutional Rights and Democracy in the U.S.A.: The Issue of Judicial Review,” 8 Ratio Juris 180 (1995) (co-author)
  • “The Nominee Is...Article V,” 12 Constitutional Commentary 171 (1995)
  • “Political Philosophy Versus Political Theory: The Case of Rawls,” 69 Chicago-Kent Law Review 691 (1994)
  • “Pluralism in Constitutional Interpretation,” 72 Texas Law Review 1753 (1994)
  • “Bringing the State Into Constitutional Theory: Public Authority and the Constitution,” 16 Law & Social Inquiry 659 (1991) (the subject of a symposium in this issue)
  • “How to Analyze the American State,” 16 Law & Social Inquiry 731 (1991)
  • “Constitutionalism in the United States: From Theory to Politics,” 10 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 200 (1990) (Honorable Mention, 1989 AALS Scholarly Paper Competition)
  • “Politics and the Supreme Court: The Case of the Bork Nomination,” 5 Journal of Law and Politics 551 (1989)
  • “What is Constitutional Theory? The Newer Theory and the Decline of the Learned Tradition,” 62 Southern California Law Review 493 (1989) 
  • “A Right of Press Access to U.S. Military Operations,” 21 Suffolk University Law Review 989 (1987) (co-author)
  • “Reconstructing Rawls's Theory of Justice,” 62 New York University Law Review 715 (1987) 

 

Book Reviews

  • “How Do We Redeem the Time? Review of Jack Balkin’s Constitutional Redemption and Living Originalism,” 91 Texas Law Review 101 (2012)
  • “What is Wartime?”, 48 Tulsa Law Review 215 (2012)
  • “Levinson and Constitutional Reform: Some Notes,” 67 Maryland Law Review 14 (2007)
  • “Barnett and the Constitution We Have Lost,” 42 San Diego Law Review 283 (2005)
  • “Has the Hour of Democracy Come Round at Last? The New Critique of Judicial Review,” 17 Constitutional Commentary 683 (2000)
  • “Review Essay: Legal Liberalism at Yale,” 14 Constitutional Commentary 535 (1997)
  • “Review of Rex Martin's A System of Rights,” 68 Tulane Law Review 1689 (1994) “Mending the Regulatory State,” 11 Law and Philosophy 291 (1992) 

 

Books

  • Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform (University Press of Kansas, 2015)
  • Long Wars and the Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2013)
  • American Constitutionalism: From Theory to Politics (Princeton University Press, 1996) *Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Book of 1997 *Italian translation: Il costituzionalismo americano (Il Mulino, 2003) 

 

Books and Book Chapters

  • “The Executive Power,” in The Oxford Handbook of the U.S. Constitution 343 (Mark Graber, Sanford Levinson and Mark Tushnet eds., 2015)
  • “Constitutional Change in the United States,” in How Constitutions Change, edited by Dawn Oliver and Carlo Fusaro 357 (Hart Publishing, 2011)
  • “Constituent Power and Constitutional Change in American Constitutionalism,” in
  • The Paradox of Constitutionalism: Constituent Power and Constitutional Form, edited by Martin Loughlin and Neil Walker 49 (Oxford University Press, 2007)
  • “The Age of Marbury: Judicial Review in a Democracy of Rights,” in Arguing Marbury v. Madison, edited by Mark Tushnet 104 (Stanford University Press, 2005)
  • “The Idea of Judicial Review in the Marshall Era,” in Marbury v. Madison: Documents and Commentary 61 (CQ Press, 2002)
  • “Constitutional Theory Transformed,” in Constitutional Culture and Democratic Rule 288 (Cambridge University Press, 2001)
  • “The Nominee Is...Article V,” in Constitutional Stupidities, Constitutional Tragedies 51 (New York University Press, 1998)
  • “Constitutionalism in the United States: From Theory to Politics,” in Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment 37 (Princeton University Press, 1995)
  • “Toward a Public Values Philosophy of the Constitution,” in Philosophical Dimensions of the Constitution 119 (Westview Press, 1988) 

 

General Publications

  • Co-Editor, Constitutional Theory: Arguments and Perspectives, 4th edition (Lexis, 2013)
  • Co-Editor, Radical Critiques of the Law (University Press of Kansas, 1997) 

 

Other Legal Writing

  • “Executive Power,” presented at An Argument Open to All: Reading The Federalist in the 21st Century Conference, University of Texas Law School, January 21-23, 2016
  • “Race, Federalism, and Constitutional Change,” presented at The Present and Future of Civil Rights Movements: Race and Reform in 21st Century America, Duke Law School, November 20-21, 2015
  • “Constitutional Change and Reform,” panel presentation at 2015 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “Long Wars and the Constitution,” presentations at Boston University School of Law Symposium on “War Powers and the Constitution,” October 30, 2014; APSA Roundtable, August 2014; Georgetown Law Center, March 2014; Emory Law School, September 2013; Woodrow Wilson Center, August 2013 and conference on “Is America Governable?,” University of Texas School of Law, January 2013
  • Commentary on Frank Cross’s The Failed Promise of Originalism, colloquium at University of Texas School of Law, February 7, 2014
  • “The State of Constitutional Theory,” panel presentation at 2013 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “The Tragic Pattern of the War Power: Presidential Decisions for War since 1945,” paper accepted for the 2012 meeting of the American Political Science Association [APSA meeting cancelled due to Hurricane Isaac] and 2013 meeting of Midwest Political Science Association
  • “Watergate and Vietnam,” invited paper for conference on “The 40th Anniversary of Watergate,” Chapman University School of Law, January 26-27, 2012
  • “The Legal Justification for the Vietnam War: The Case of Nicholas deB. Katzenbach,” invited paper for “The American Experience in Southeast Asia, 1946-1975,” conference at U.S. Department of State, September 29-30, 2010
  • “The National Security Constitution and the Bush Administration,” invited paper for conference on A Republic of Statutes at Yale Law School, December 10- 11, 2010
  • “War Powers and Constitutional Change,” presented at 2009 meeting of the American Political Science Association; Tulane Murphy Institute Faculty Seminar; Cornell Constitutional Theory Colloquium, October 2009; University of Texas Colloquium, February 2010; University of Kansas Workshop, February 2011 
  • Organized and chaired panel, “The Bush Presidency and the Constitution” and gave panel presentation on Sanford Levinson’s “Our Undemocratic Constitution,” at 2007 AALS meeting
  • “Reflections on Hurricane Katrina,” Symposium on Federalism Past, Federalism Future, St. John’s University School of Law, March 2006
  • “Constituent Power and Constitutional Change in American Constitutionalism,” Conference on Constituent Power and Constitutional Form, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, March 2006
  • “Trust in Government as a Constitutional Problem,” Law and Public Affairs Seminar, Princeton University, November 2005
  • “Barnett and the Constitution We Have Lost,” panel presentation at 2004 AALS meeting
  • “The State of Constitutional Theory,” panel discussion at 2004 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “Constitutional Law Outside the Courts,” presented at June 2002 AALS/APSA Conference on Constitutional Law, Washington, D.C. available at: http://www.aals.org/profdev/constitutional/griffin.html
  • Organized and chaired panel, “Marbury and the Consequences of Judicial Supremacy,” at 2002 meeting of the American Political Science Association; presented paper, “The Age of Marbury”
  • “Judicial Review in a Democracy of Rights,” presented at February 2001 Symposium on Equal Protection at the University of Pennsylvania Law School
  • Organized panel on “Judicial Review and the Normative Implications of the New Institutionalism” and presented paper “Judicial Review in a Democracy of Rights” at the 2000 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “Historicism and Constitutional Interpretation in the United States,” presented at the 19th IVR World Congress, June 1999, New York City
  • Organizer and chair, “Roundtable on the Clinton Crisis and the Presidency,” presented at the 1999 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “Affirmative Action in History and Theory,” presented at the Brendan F. Brown Conference on Race and American Constitutionalism, Loyola University School of Law, March 1997, New Orleans
  • Participated as discussant on panel “The Judiciary in the Constitutional Order” and on panel “What’s So Great About Constitutionalism” at the 1997 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “On the Very Idea of Judicial Review,” presented at the 1996 meeting of the American Political Science Association 
  • “Understanding American Constitutionalism,” presented at the 1995 Murphy Institute of Political Economy Conference on “Constitutions and Constitutionalism II”
  • “Constitutional Rights and Democracy in the U.S.A.: The Issue of Judicial Review,” presented at the 17th IVR World Congress, June 1995 in Bologna, Italy (co-author)
  • “The Constitution and State-Centered Theories of American Politics,” presented at the 1995 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “The Hardest Questions in Constitutional Law: A Brief Catalog,” presented at the 1995 meeting of the Georgetown Discussion Group on Constitutional Law
  • “The Problem of Constitutional Change in the United States,” presented at the 1994 Murphy Institute of Political Economy Conference on “Constitutions and Constitutionalism”
  • “Judicial Review and Democracy Revisited,” presented at the 1993 meeting of the American Political Science Association
  • “State and Constitution in the United States,” presented at the 1992 meeting of the Southwestern Political Science Association
  • “Can a Conception of Political Right Adjudicate Between Conflicting Conceptions of the Good?,” presented at the 1990 Amintaphil Conference on Liberalism and Community