Gary S. Lawson
Born
Gary Steven Lawson[1]

(1958-10-14) October 14, 1958 (age 65)
EducationClaremont McKenna College
Yale Law School
OccupationLegal scholar
EmployerBoston University School of Law

Gary S. Lawson is an American lawyer whose focus is in administrative law, constitutional law, legal history, and jurisprudence. He was a law clerk for Judge Antonin Scalia of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia from 1985–86 and clerked for Scalia again during his 1986-87 term on the United States Supreme Court.[2] He is currently the Philip S. Beck Professor of Law at Boston University School of Law.[3] He previously taught at the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.[3] He is the secretary of the board of directors of the Federalist Society.[4] With Steven G. Calabresi, he has argued that the Mueller Probe was "unlawful."[3]

Lawson has been cited a number of times in majority opinions, concurrences and dissents written by the United States Supreme Court.[5][6][7]

Contributions to legal theory

Lawson is a notable scholar of and proponent for the constitutional doctrine of Originalism.[8][9][10]

"On Reading Recipes—And Constitutions"

In 1997, Lawson wrote a law journal article on the doctrine of Originalism, "On Reading Recipes—And Constitutions", in which he argued that interpreting old text means trying understand how those words would have been understood at the time they were written and illustrated his point by imagining someone trying to cook fried chicken using a very old recipe, the instructions for which contained vagueness due to the dated nature of the recipe. Lawson suggests that someone in that situation would do some research to attempt to understand what the author of the recipe meant, and that this is the essence of the practice of Originalism.[11][12]

In an episode of 5-4 on Originalism, Peter Shamshiri was critical of Lawson's essay, saying, "Can [Lawson] really not conceptualize the differences between a document that dictates the nature of political relations across a country and a recipe?...There are also degrees to which I think this analogy proves the opposite point: When you have a fried chicken recipe, what's your goal in making it? Is it to replicate the original fried chicken, or is it to make the best fried chicken you can? Both of those are valid goals, but that's a threshold question that you need to answer that this analogy skips right over."[13]

Selected works

Bibliography

References

  1. ^ https://heinonline.org/HOL/AuthorProfile?search_name=Lawson%2C+Gary&collection=journals&base=js
  2. ^ https://scholarship.law.bu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1699&context=faculty_scholarship
  3. ^ a b c "Gary S. Lawson". Boston University School of Law. Retrieved May 10, 2017.
  4. ^ "Board of Directors". The Federalist Society. Retrieved March 30, 2019.
  5. ^ Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 95-1478, 924 (U.S. 1997) ("See Lawson & Granger, The "Proper" Scope of Federal Power: A Jurisdictional Interpretation of the Sweeping Clause, 43 Duke L. J. 267, 297-326, 330-333 (1993)")
  6. ^ Zivotofsky v. Kerry, 576 U.S. 13–628 (U.S. 2015) ("See Lawson & Granger, The “Proper” Scope of Federal Power: A Jurisdictional Interpretation of the Sweeping Clause, 43 Duke L. J. 267, 291, 297 (1993)")
  7. ^ Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico v. Aurelius Investment, LLC, 590 U.S. 18-1334 (U.S. 2020) ("See Lawson & Sloane, The Constitutionality of Decolonization by Associated Statehood: Puerto Rico’s Legal Status Reconsidered, 50 Boston College L. Rev. 1123, 1127 (2009) (arguing that if Puerto Rico remains “just another territory subject to Congress’ plenary power under the Territories Clause,” “the United States...is in violation of its international legal obligations vis-à-vis Puerto Rico”)")
  8. ^ Gary S. Lawson, On Reading Recipes -- And Constitutions, 6 Georgetown Law Journal, 1823 (1997).
  9. ^ Andrew Koppelman (6 March 2012). "Bad News for Everybody: Lawson and Kopel on Health Care Reform and Originalism". Yale Law Journal. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  10. ^ Stephen L. Carter (1992). "Originalism and the Bill of Rights". Harv. JL & Pub. Pol'y. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  11. ^ Will Baude (12 February 2014). "Reasons for being an originalist". Washington Post. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  12. ^ Zachary B. Pohlman (10 January 2023). "Revisiting the Fried Chicken Recipe". Notre Dame Law Review. Retrieved 5 November 2023.
  13. ^ Rhiannon Hamam, Michael Liroff, Peter Shamshiri (31 May 2022). "Originalism: The Doctrine from Hell" (Podcast). Prologue Projects. Event occurs at 27:28. Retrieved 4 November 2023.((cite podcast)): CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ Rachel Alexander (27 September 2023). "In Disbarment Trial of Trump's Attorney John Eastman, Berkeley Constitutional Law Professor John Yoo Contradicts California Bar's Star Witness on the Key Issue". Arizona Sun-Times. Retrieved 11 November 2023.


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