David D. Meyer

Mitchell Franklin Professor of Law
Dean of the Law School
meyer@tulane.edu
Weinmann Hall, Suite 210-A
504-865-5937

Education

JD, magna cum laude, The University of Michigan
BA, with highest honors

Biography

David Meyer became the 22nd Dean of Tulane Law School in 2010. Dean Meyer’s expertise relates to constitutional law and family law, and he has written extensively on topics at the intersection of the two fields. He served as U.S. national reporter on family law at several congresses of the International Academy of Comparative Law, including Washington (2010), Utrecht (2006) and Brisbane (2002), and he has delivered endowed lectures or keynote addresses at BYU, Florida, Hofstra, Michigan State and other venues.

Before coming to Tulane, Meyer was on the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Law, where he also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He has been a visiting professor at George Washington University and Brooklyn Law Schools and is a member of the American Law Institute. Prior to entering academia, he served as a legal advisor at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague and practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Chicago.

He was a law clerk for Judge Harry T. Edwards on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Byron R. White.

Meyer graduated with a B.A. with Highest Honors in History and a J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, where he also served as editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review.

Selected Publications

Family Law Equality at a Crossroads, 2013 MICH. ST. L. REV. 1231 (keynote lecture)

Bill Suter: General, Ambassador, Tulanian, 88 TUL. L. REV. 15 (2013)

Fragmentation and Consolidation in the Law of Marriage and Same-Sex Relationships, 58 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW 115 (2010)

Gonzales v. Carhart and the Hazards of Muddled Scrutiny, 17 JOURNAL OF LAW & POLICY 57 (2009) (symposium)

The Constitutionalization of Family Law, 42 FAMILY LAW QUARTERLY 529 (2008)

Palmore Comes of Age: The Place of Race in the Placement of Children, 18 UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA JOURNAL OF LAW & PUBLIC POLICY 183 (2007) (Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture)

The Geography of Family Privacy, 156 U. PA. L. REV. PENNUMBRA 136 (2007) (invited responsive essay)

The Constitutional Rights of Non-Custodial Parents, 34 HOFSTRA LAW REVIEW 1461 (2006) (Siben Distinguished Professorship Lecture)

A Privacy Right to Public Recognition?: The Cases of Marriage and Adoption, 51 VILLANOVA LAW REVIEW 891 (2006) (symposium)

Parenthood in a Time of Transition: Tensions Between Legal, Biological, and Social Conceptions of Parentage, 54 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW 125 (2006)

The Constitutionality of “Best Interests” Parenthood, 14 WILLIAM & MARY BILL OF RIGHTS JOURNAL 857 (2006) (symposium)

Domesticating Lawrence, 2004 UNIV. OF CHICAGO LEGAL FORUM 444 (2004)

Justice White and the Right of Privacy, 52 CATHOLIC UNIV. LAW REVIEW 915 (2003) (symposium)

The Modest Promise of Children’s Relationship Rights, 11 WILLIAM & MARY BILL OF RIGHTS JOURNAL 1117 (2003) (symposium)

What Family for the 21st Century?, 50 AMERICAN JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW 101 (2002) (with Harry D. Krause)

Self-Definition in the Constitution of Faith and Family, 86 MINNESOTA LAW REVIEW 791 (2002)

Lochner Redeemed: Family Privacy After Troxel and Carhart, 48 UCLA LAW REVIEW 1125 (2001)

What Constitutional Law Can Learn from the ALI Principles of Family Dissolution, 2001 BYU LAW REVIEW 1075 (2001) (symposium)

Constitutional Pragmatism for a Changing American Family, 32 RUTGERS LAW JOURNAL 711 (2001) (symposium)

The Paradox of Family Privacy, 53 VANDERBILT LAW REVIEW 527 (2000)

Family Ties: Solving the Constitutional Dilemma of the Faultless Father, 41 ARIZONA LAW REVIEW 753 (1999)

Book Review, 87 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 1557 (1989) (reviewing Charles Lofgren, The Plessy Case: A Legal-Historical Interpretation (1987))

Note, Finding a "Manifest Imbalance": The Case for a Unified Statistical Test for Voluntary Affirmative Action Under Title VII, 87 MICHIGAN LAW REVIEW 1986 (1989)

Books and Book Chapters

Family Diversity and the Rights of Parenthood, in WHAT IS PARENTHOOD?: CONTEMPORARY DEBATES ABOUT THE FAMILY (NYU Press 2013)

CONTEMPORARY FAMILY LAW (West 3d ed. 2012) (with Douglas Abrams, Naomi Cahn & Catherine Ross), with Teacher’s Manual (3d ed. 2012)

CONTEMPORARY FAMILY LAW (WEST 2D ED. 2009) (with Douglas Abrams, Naomi Cahn & Catherine Ross), with Teacher’s Manual (2d ed. 2009)

FAMILY LAW (West Black Letter Series 4th ed. 2009) (with Harry D. Krause)

Family Privacy, IN THE CHICAGO COMPANION TO THE CHILD (Univ. of Chicago Press 2009) (encyclopedia entry)

Parenthood in Transition: A United States Perspective, in TENSIONS BETWEEN LEGAL, BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL CONCEPTIONS OF PARENTHOOD (Intersentia European Law Series 2007)

FAMILY LAW IN A NUTSHELL (West 5th ed. 2007) (with Harry D. Krause)

Partners, Caregivers, and the Constitutional Substance of Parenthood, in RECONCEIVING THE FAMILY: CRITIQUE ON THE AMERICAN LAW INSTITUTE’S PRINCIPLES OF THE LAW OF FAMILY DISSOLUTION (Cambridge Univ. Press 2006)

CONTEMPORARY FAMILY LAW (West 1st ed. 2006) (with Douglas Abrams, Naomi Cahn & Catherine Ross), with Teacher’s Manual (2006)

Family Ties: Solving the Constitutional Dilemma of the Faultless Father, in FAMILIES BY LAW: AN ADOPTION READER 52 (NYU Press 2004)

FAMILY LAW (West Black Letter Series 3d ed. 2004) (with Harry D. Krause)

FAMILY LAW IN A NUTSHELL (West 4th ed. 2003) (with Harry D. Krause)