Michael J. Klarman (born 1959) is an American legal historian and scholar of

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

. Currently, Klarman is the Kirkland & Ellis Professor at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

. Formerly, he was

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

Distinguished Professor of Law, Professor of History, and Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Research Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law.

Early life and education

Klarman grew up in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. His father, Herbert E. Klarman, was a public health economist. He is the brother of investor Seth Klarman. Klarman holds a J.D. from

Stanford Law School Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...

, a D.Phil. from

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

(where he was a Marshall Scholar) and an M.A. and B.A. from the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

. His dissertation was titled "The Osborne Judgment: A Legal/Historical Analysis". After his graduation from law school, he clerked for then-Judge

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Joan Ruth Bader Ginsburg ( ; Bader; March 15, 1933 – September 18, 2020) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1993 until Death and state funeral of Ruth Bader ...

when she was on the

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. courts of appeals, ...

."Michael Klarman to join HLS faculty,"
Harvard Law School press release, January 24, 2008.

Scholarship

Klarman specializes in the constitutional history of race. He contends that the Supreme Court of the United States has historically been hostile to the rights of minorities and has not consistently enforced constitutional protections for them. Klarman argues that civil rights protections arise out of social mores from which the court takes its cue. Klarman has also defended political process theory as a method of constitutional interpretation.Klarman, Michael J. (May 1991). "The Puzzling Resistance to Political Process Theory". ''Virginia Law Review''. 77 (4): 747–832. doi:10.2307/1073297.

JSTOR JSTOR ( ; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library of academic journals, books, and primary sources founded in 1994. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary source ...

1073297.

Awards

* 2005 Bancroft Prize

Works

*
Preview.
* Discussion between Klarman and Michael W. McConnell regarding ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the ...

'' :* ::*''Response to McConnell:'' :::*''Response to Klarman:'' * *
Preview.
*
Preview.
*
Preview
*
Preview.

References

External links

* ttp://www.virginialawreview.org/inbrief.php?s=inbrief&p=2008/02/18/index "Book Excerpt: ''Unfinished Business''", ''Virginia Law Review'', February 18, 2008* Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford Harvard Law School faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Virginia School of Law faculty Stanford Law School alumni 21st-century American historians 21st-century American male writers Marshall Scholars Bancroft Prize winners 1959 births American male non-fiction writers {{US-law-bio-stub