Privileges or Immunities Amicus Brief Featured As “Brief of the Week”

April 24th, 2014

I recently joined an amicus brief, along with other scholars, urging the Court to welcome the Privileges or Immunities clause back into our constitutional jurisprudence. The brief authored by the Tom Hungar, Robert Johnson, and the team at Gibson Dunn, has been featured by the National Law Journal as the “Brief of the Week.”

As chairman of the appellate and constitutional law practice at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Thomas Hungar is accustomed to analyzing high court opinions. An amicus brief he wrote on behalf of six law professors in Courtney v. Danner let him delve into Reconstruction-era history.

“My son is a history buff,” said Hungar, who has argued 25 times before the U.S. Supreme Court. “I’m planning to send him our brief in this case, which is not the case for the vast majority of what I work on.”

The professors on the brief are Randy Barnett of Georgetown University Law Center; Josh Blackman of South Texas College of Law; James Ely Jr., of Vanderbilt Law School; Richard Epstein of New York University School of Law; Christopher Green of the University of Mississippi School of Law; and Ilya Somin of George Mason University School of Law.

The Court called for a response on this case, which is due tomorrow.