Michael D. Ramsey: Constitutional Law Thought Leader

Michael D. Ramsey: Constitutional Law Thought Leader

In April 2021, when President Biden issued an executive order forming the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, one of the experts chosen to participate was USD Law Professor Michael Ramsey.

Professor Ramsey, a widely published legal scholar in the fields of separation of powers and federalism, brought extensive knowledge of the U.S. Supreme Court to the prestigious commission, which was formed to analyze the arguments in the public debate for and against Supreme Court reform. Serving on the 36-member commission alongside some of the country's foremost legal scholars, judges and practitioners, he examined topics that included the genesis of the reform debate, the Court's role in the constitutional system, and the length of service and turnover of Justices on the Court.

"It's a great honor to be part of such a diverse and distinguished group studying this important topic," Professor Ramsey said.

Professor Ramsey has long had an interest in international law and economics, which took root as an undergraduate at Dartmouth College, and later at Stanford Law School, where he was chief articles editor of the Stanford Journal of International Law (and where he graduated first in his class).

In addition to his other responsibilities at the USD School of Law, Ramsey is the faculty director of International and Comparative Law Programs; he is also an editor and frequent contributor to The Originalism Blog, sponsored by the USD Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism. His passion for this area of study was reinforced after law school, when he clerked on the Supreme Court of the United States for the avatar of originalism, Justice Antonin Scalia.

Professor Ramsey is also a prolific writer whose scholarship focuses on the intersection of international law and U.S. constitutional law. Recently named among the nation's most cited scholars in the field of international law and security, he is the author of two academic press books – The Constitution's Text in Foreign Affairs (Harvard University Press), and International Law in the U.S. Supreme Court (Cambridge University Press, with David Sloss & William Dodge). The latter book received the American Society of International Law's Certificate of Merit as a "work of great distinction" in 2012.

Professor Ramsey is also the co-author of two leading casebooks, International Business Transactions: A Problem-Oriented Coursebook (West Academic Publishing) and Transnational Law and Practice (Aspen). His many articles include "The Executive Power over Foreign Affairs" (Yale Law Journal), "Textualism and War Powers" (University of Chicago Law Review), and "The Constitution's Text and Customary International Law" (Georgetown Law Journal).