Biography

A productive scholar and award-winning teacher, Pamela S. Karlan is also co-director of the school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, where students litigate live cases before the Court. One of the nation’s leading experts on voting and the political process, she has served as a commissioner on the California Fair Political Practices Commission and an assistant counsel and cooperating attorney for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Professor Karlan is the co-author of three leading casebooks on constitutional law, constitutional litigation, and the law of democracy, as well as more than sixty scholarly articles.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1998, she was a professor of law at the University of Virginia School of Law and served as a law clerk to Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Abraham D. Sofaer of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Karlan is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Law Institute and serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the American Constitution Society.

Key Works

• Pamela S. Karlan, The Gay and the Angry: The Supreme Court and the Battles Surrounding Same-Sex Marriage, 2011 Supreme Court Review 159 (2011).
• Goodwin Liu, Pamela S. Karlan, and Christopher H. Schroeder, Keeping Faith with the Constitution, New York: Oxford, 2010.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Shoe-Horning, Shell Games, and Enforcing Constitutional Rights in the Twenty-First Century 78, UMKC Law Review 875 (2010).
• Pamela S. Karlan, Constitutional Law as Trademark, 43 UC Davis Law Review 385 (2009).
• Geoffrey R. Stone, Louis Michael Seidman, Cass R. Sunstein, Mark V. Tushnet, and Pamela S. Karlan, Constitutional Law, New York: Wolters Kluwer, 6th ed., 2009.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Electing Judges, Judging Elections and the Lessons of Caperton, 123 Harvard Law Review 80 (2009).
• Pamela S. Karlan, John C. Jeffries, Jr., Peter W. Low and George A. Rutherglen, Civil Rights Actions: Enforcing the Constitution, New York: Foundation Press, 2nd ed., 2007.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Samuel Issacharoff, and Richard H. Pildes, The Law of Democracy : Legal Structure of the Political Process, Westbury, N.Y.: Foundation Press, 1998. 788 pages.

In the News

• Texas Voting Rights Clash Puts High Court In Fray
  Bloomberg, January 09, 2012
• Texas Redrawn: Voting Rights, States' Power In Court
  National Public Radio - Morning Edition, January 09, 2012
• High Court Weighs Hearing Arguments On Health-Care Law
  USA Today, November 08, 2011
• Court Weighs Heavy docket
  The Washington Post, October 02, 2011

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Constitutional Law I
• Constitutional Litigation
• Regulation of the Political Process
• Supreme Court Litigation Clinic

Programs

• Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, Co-Director

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Pamela S. Karlan, Marriage, Method, and the Supreme Court, Supreme Court Review, forthcoming.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Karlan's Court: Big Brother Buys a GPS, Boston Review, Jan./Feb. 2012, p. 10; updated online January 30, 2012..
• Pamela S. Karlan, Karlan's Court: The Cost of Death, Boston Review, November/December 2011.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Sometimes an Amendment Is Just an Amendment, Boston Review, September/October 2011.
• Thomas C. Goldstein, Amy Howe, Kevin K. Russell, Pamela S. Karlan, Anthony T. Falzone (Counsel of Record), Julie A. Ahrens, Daniel K. Nazer, Hugh Q. Gottschalk, Carolyn J. Fairless, Reply Brief: Lawrence Golan et al., Petitioners, v. Eric H. Holder, Jr. et al., Respondents, No. 10-545 in the Supreme Court of the United States, August 31, 2011.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Old Reasons, New Reasons, No Reasons, Henry J. Miller Lecture Series Article, 27 Georgia State University Law Review 873 (2011).
• Pamela S. Karlan, Me, Inc., Boston Review, July/August 2011.
• Thomas C. Goldstein, Amy Howe, Kevin K. Russell, Pamela S. Karlan, Anthony T. Falzone (Counsel of Record), Julie A. Ahrens, Daniel K. Nazer, Hugh Q. Gottschalk, Carolyn J. Fairless, Brief for the Petitioner: Lawrence Golan et al., Petitioners, v. Eric H. Holder, Jr. et al., Respondents, No. 10-545 in the Supreme Court of the United States, June 14, 2011.
• Pamela S. Karlan, The Reconstruction of Voting Rights, in Race, Reform, and Regulation of the Electoral Process: Recurring Puzzles in American Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
• Pamela S. Karlan, Karlan's Court: It Takes Two, Boston Review, May/June 2011, p. 10.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member, American Law Institute
• Cooperating Attorney, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund
• Former Commissioner, California Fair Political Practices Commission
• Affiliated Faculty, Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity

Honors and Awards

• Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Recipient, University of Virginia All-University Outstanding Teaching Award, 1995-96
• Recipient, State Council on Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award, 1997
• Recipient, John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, Stanford, 2002
• Honoree, The Public Sector 45, American Lawyer, 1997