Steven Gow Calabresi (born March 1, 1958) is an American legal scholar who is the Clayton J. and Henry R. Barber Professor of Law at
Northwestern University
Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
. He is the co-chairman of the
Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian legal organization that advocates for a Textualism, textualist an ...
. He is the nephew of
Guido Calabresi
Guido Calabresi (born October 18, 1932) is an Italian-born American jurist who serves as a senior circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He is a former Dean of Yale Law School, where he has been a professor s ...
, a
U.S. Appellate judge and former dean of the
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
.
Early life and education
Calabresi graduated from the
Moses Brown School in
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, in 1976. He then attended
Yale College
Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...
, graduating ''
cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...
'' in 1980.
He received his J.D. degree from
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
, where he was the Note & Topics Editor of the ''
Yale Law Journal
''The Yale Law Journal'' (YLJ) is a student-run law review affiliated with the Yale Law School. Published continuously since 1891, it is the most widely known of the eight law reviews published by students at Yale Law School. The journal is one ...
''. After law school, he served as
law clerk
A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...
for Judge
Ralph K. Winter of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Judge
Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork (March 1, 1927 – December 19, 2012) was an American legal scholar who served as solicitor general of the United States from 1973 until 1977. A professor by training, he was acting United States Attorney General and a judge on ...
of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Justice
Antonin Scalia of the
United States Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...
. While at Yale Law School, Calabresi and two Yale College friends, Lee Liberman Otis and David McIntosh, founded the Yale chapter of the
Federalist Society
The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (FedSoc) is an American Conservatism in the United States, conservative and Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian legal organization that advocates for a Textualism, textualist an ...
, one of the Society's three original chapters.
Teaching career
Calabresi joined the faculty of Northwestern Law School in 1990. He has been a visiting professor at Yale Law School (in the fall semesters of 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016), and a visiting professor of political theory at
Brown University
Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...
, where he has taught since 2010.
Political career
Calabresi served under presidents
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan (February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was an American politician and actor who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He was a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party a ...
and
George H. W. Bush
George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
from 1985 to 1990.
[ During that time, he advised Attorney General Edwin Meese III, and Reagan Domestic Policy Chief T. Kenneth Cribb, and wrote campaign speeches for Vice President ]Dan Quayle
James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), ...
. Calabresi supported legally recognizing same-sex marriages. In 2016, Calabresi endowed the Abraham Lincoln Lecture on Constitutional Law at Northwestern Priztker School of Law in Chicago. The lecture's purpose is to show Lincoln's enormous talent as a constitutional lawyer and to reflect on what legal changes Lincoln's legacy might appropriately call for today.
With Gary S. Lawson, Calabresi argued that the Mueller Probe was unlawful.
In July 2020, Calabresi wrote a ''New York Times'' editorial condemning a tweet by President Trump that floated postponing the 2020 election. Calabresi said the tweet "frankly appalled" him, called it "fascistic", and said it was "itself grounds for the president’s immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate."
On January 13, 2021, Calabresi and Democrat Norman Eisen co-wrote an op-ed in ''The New York Times'' saying that President Trump should be charged and impeached in a second trial before the end of his term in office or immediately after for what he said and did on January 6 and for his effort to subvert Georgia's election results by asking the secretary of state "to find" enough votes for him to win the state. The authors said that the Senate should disqualify Trump from ever holding any public office again after convicting him. They wrote that the recordings of Trump's phone call and his speech to supporters on January 6 were enough evidence to convict on those charges.
Selected publications
Calabresi has published more than 65 articles in law review
A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also provide ...
s, including:
*
*Calabresi, Steven G. "" A Government of Limited and Enumerated Powers": In Defense of United States v. Lopez." ''Michigan Law Review'' 94.3 (1995): 752-831.
*Calabresi, Steven G., and Sarah E. Agudo. "Individuals Rights under State Constitutions When the Fourteenth Amendment Was Ratified in 1868: What Rights Are Deeply Rooted in American History and Tradition." ''Tex. L. Rev.'' 87 (2008): 7
*Calabresi, Steven G., and Gary Lawson. "The Unitary Executive, Jurisdiction Stripping, and the Hamdan Opinions: A Textualist Response to Justice Scalia." ''Colum. L. Rev.'' 107 (2007): 1002.
*Calabresi, Steven G., and Saikrishna B. Prakash. "The President's Power to Execute the Laws." ''Yale LJ'' 104 (1994): 541.
*Calabresi, Steven G., and Kevin H. Rhodes. "The Structural Constitution: Unitary Executive, Plural Judiciary" ''Harv. L. Rev.'' 105 (1991): 1153.
He has written or edited several books, including:
* Calabresi, S. G. (2007). ''Originalism: a Quarter Century of Debate''. Regnery Press.
* Calabresi, Steven G., and Christopher S. Yoo. ''The Unitary Executive: Presidential Power from Washington to Bush''. Yale University Press, 2008.
*Michael Stokes Paulsen, Steven G. Calabresi, Michael W. McConnell, Samuel Bray & William Baude, ''The Constitution of the United States.'' (Foundation Press 2010) asebook(2d ed. 2013) (3d ed. 2017).
*
See also
* List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Calabresi, Steven G.
Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Living people
American lawyers
Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law faculty
Illinois Republicans
Moses Brown School alumni
Yale College alumni
Yale Law School alumni
Brown University faculty
1958 births
American people of Italian descent