Professor Gary Lawson’s Scholarship Cited in U.S. Supreme Court Decision

The scholarship of Professor Gary Lawson, Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law at University of Florida Levin College of Law, was recently cited by Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissenting opinion in the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 29 decision in Trump v. Slaughter.

In its decision, the Court cited Professor Lawson’s Fordham Law Review article “Command and Control: Operationalizing the Unitary Executive,” which examines the constitutional foundations of presidential authority under Article II and the practical mechanisms for exercising executive power within the federal government.

Professor Gary Lawson joined the University of Florida Levin College of Law faculty in July 2024 after 24 years at Boston University School of Law and 11 years at Northwestern University School of Law. At Boston University, he was named a William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor in 2022, the university’s highest faculty honor. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia on both the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court before serving as the John M. Olin Research Fellow at Yale Law School.

Professor Lawson’s scholarship has been cited in more than 20 opinions of United States Supreme Court justices. He has authored or co-authored 10 editions of a textbook on administrative law, two editions of a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, one popular press book, and more than 100 scholarly articles on topics ranging from aspects of constitutional theory and history to the proof of legal propositions.

He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.