Levin College of Law
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Jonathan Marshfield

Professor of Law

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SSRN

Phone:
352-273-0940

Expertise

Civil Procedure  • Constitutional Law  • Local Government  • Local Government Law  • State Constitutional Law  • 

About

Professor Marshfield teaches and writes in the areas of local government law, state constitutional law, and constitutional change.  His research has appeared in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Boston University Law Review and the Michigan Law Review, among others.  His state constitutional law research has been cited by the New Jersey Supreme Court, and his research into constitutional change has been cited by leading scholars in law reviews, textbooks, and academic journals.  Professor Marshfield has also served as a consultant to foreign officials regarding issues of constitutional revision, and he has advised public policy groups regarding voter awareness and ballot issues.

Before joining the University of Florida, Professor Marshfield taught at the University of Nebraska College of Law, where he twice won Professor of the Year for this teaching.  Professor Marshfield also taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law and practiced as a commercial litigator with Latham & Watkins LLP and Saul Ewing LLP.  He clerked for Judge Robert B. Kugler, United States District Judge for the District of New Jersey, and Chief Justice James R. Zazzali of the Supreme Court of the State of New Jersey.

Professor Marshfield grew up in Durban, South Africa.

Education

B.A., Cedarville University
J.D., Rutgers School of Law
LL.M., New York University School of Law

Publications

Law Review Articles      

  • American Democracy and the State Constitutional Convention, 92 Fordham L. Rev. (forthcoming 2024).
  • America’s Other Separation of Powers Tradition, 74 Duke L. J. (forthcoming 2023).
  • America’s Misunderstood Constitutional Rights, 170 U. Pa. L. Rev. 853 (2022).
  • Forgotten Limits on the Power to Amend State Constitutions, 114 Nw. U. L. Rev. 65 (2019).
  • The Amendment Effect, 98 B.U. L. Rev. 55 (2018).
  • Amendment Creep, 115 Mich. L. Rev. 215 (2016).
  • Decentralizing the Amendment Power, 19 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 963 (2016).
  • Models of Subnational Constitutionalism, 115 Penn St. L. Rev. 1151 (2011).
  • Federalism and Political Competition in Emerging Democracies, 10 Wash. U. Glob. Stud. L. Rev. 297 (2011).
  • Evaluating South Africa’s Post-Apartheid Democratic Prospects through the Lens of Economic Development Theory, 9 Rich. J. Global L. & Bus. 431 (2010).                 
  • Providing Meaningful Judicial Review of Municipal Redevelopment Designations:  Redevelopment in New Jersey Before and After Gallenthin Realty Development, Inc. v. Borough of Paulsboro, 40 Rutgers L. J. 451 (2009) (with Hon. James R. Zazzali).
  • Authorizing Subnational Constitutions in Transitional Federal States:  South Africa, Democracy, and the KwaZulu-Natal Constitution, 41 Vand. J. Transnat’l L. 585 (2008).

Symposium Articles, Essays, and Book Chapters      

  • State Constitutional Rights, State Courts, and the Future of Substantive Due Process Protections, 76 SMU L. REV. (forthcoming 2023) (solicited symposium article).
  • Political Functions and Limitations of Contemporary State Constitutions in the United States, in A Written Constitution for Quebec? (Richard Albert ed., McGill-Queen’s Univ. Press) (2023) (solicited).
  • State Constitutions and the Interaction between Formal Amendment and “Unwritten” Constitutions, in Amending America’s Unwritten Constitution (Richard Albert, Ryan Williams, Yaniv Roznai, eds., Cambridge University Press 2022) ( solicited).
  • The Single-Subject Rule and the Politics of Constitutional Amendment in Initiative States, 101 Neb. L. Rev. 101 (2022) (symposium article).
  • Popular Regulation?  State Constitutional Amendment and the Administrative State, 8 Belmont L. Rev. 342 (2021) (solicited symposium article).
  • Professor Robert F. Williams – Teacher, Mentor, Scholar & Friend, 72 Rutgers L. Rev. 1219 (2020).
  • Unpacking America’s Constitutional Layers, 55 Tulsa L. Rev. 239 (2019).
  • The People and Their Constitutions, 71 Rutgers L. Rev. 1233 (2019).
  • Courts and Informal Constitutional Change in the States, 52 New Eng. L. Rev. (2018) (invited keynote article for paper symposium).
  • Respecting the Mystery of Constitutional Change, 65 Buff. L. Rev. 1057 (2018) (solicited).
  • Improving Amendment, 69 Ark. L. Rev. 477 (2016) (symposium).
  • Foreign Precedent in State Constitutional Interpretation, 53 Duq. L. Rev. 413 (2015) (solicited).
  • Dimensions of Constitutional Change, 43 Rutgers L.J. 593 (2013) (invited book review).
  • A Tribute to Chief Justice James R. Zazzali:  More Than a “Caretaker”, 59 Rutgers L. Rev. 667 (2007) (with Gregory L. Acquaviva & David M. Stauss).

University of Florida Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive
PO Box 117620
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 273-0804
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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.