David Barron
(Spring 2012)
Research Interests
- Administrative law
- Constitutional law
- Local government law
- Property law
Education
- A.B., Harvard College, 1989
- J.D., Harvard Law School, 1994
Biography
David Barron is the Honorable S. William Green Professor of Public Law
at Harvard Law School. He recently returned to teaching after
serving as the acting assistant attorney general for the Office of
Legal Counsel in the United States Department of Justice from January
20, 2009 to July 2010. In that capacity, Barron authored a number of
published
opinions on topics including cyber security, the First Amendment, the
application of the Violence Against Women Act to same-sex partners, and
the separation of powers. He also provided advice on a wide range of
national security and domestic legal issues.
Prior to joining
the Obama administration, he served as a member of the Justice
Department agency review team for the Obama-Biden transition.
While
teaching, Barron served as an adviser on Supreme Court confirmation
hearings to U.S. Senators Charles E. Schumer and Edward M. Kennedy, and he
testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on war powers. His
teaching and scholarship focuses on war powers, presidential power, the
separation of powers, administrative law, constitutional law,
federalism, and local government law.
Barron’s articles on
these topics have appeared in the
Harvard Law Review, the
Stanford Law
Review, the
Yale Law Journal, and the
Supreme Court Review. He is the
co-author of a leading casebook on local government law and of
City
Bound: How States Stifle Urban Innovation (Cornell University Press, 2008). Before
entering law teaching, Barron served as an attorney-advisor in
the Office of Legal Counsel from 1996 to 1999, and as a law clerk to
Associate Justice John Paul Stevens and Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the
United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. He is an honors
graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.
Selected Publications
- “Reclaiming Home Rule,” 116 Harvard Law Review 2255 (2003).
- “Chevron’s Nondelegation Doctrine,” with Elena Kagan, 2001 Supreme Court Review 201 (2001).
- “A Localist Critique of the New Federalism,” 51 Duke Law Journal 377 (2001).
- “Constitutionalism in the Shadow of Doctrine: The President’s Non-enforcement Power,” 63 Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems 16 (2000).
- “The Promise of Cooley’s City: Traces of Local Constitutionalism,” 147 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 787 (1999).
Appointments
- Chair, Section on Local Government Law, AALS
- Assistant Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, 1999
- Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, 2004
- Honorable S. William Green Professor of Public Law, Harvard Law School, 2011
