Stephen M. Griffin

Stephen Griffin teaches constitutional law and is interested in constitutional theory and history.  Over the course of his career, he has emphasized the key role of constitutional change in American constitutionalism, including the role of formal and informal amendments and “the Constitution outside the courts.”

Griffin is the author of three books: American Constitutionalism: From Theory to Politics (Princeton University Press 1996); Long Wars and the Constitution (Harvard University Press 2013) and Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform (University Press of Kansas 2015).  He has co-edited a reader on constitutional theory, Constitutional Theory: Arguments and Perspectives (Carolina Academic Press). His writings, which include more than 50 articles, book chapters,  book reviews, and short contributions have been cited in political science and history journals as well as law reviews.

He received the Sumter Marks Award for his scholarship in 2000 and the Felix Frankfurter Distinguished Teaching Award, the Law School’s highest teaching award, from the Classes of 2002 and 2022.  He was the Law School’s Vice Dean of Academic Affairs in 2001-04 and 2006-09 and Interim Dean in 2009-10.

Before being hired at Tulane in 1989, Griffin was a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School and Research Instructor in Law for two years at New York University School of Law.