Thomas E. Baker
Professor of Law
305.348.8342
Education & CV
- J.D., University of Florida Levin College of Law
- B.S., Florida State University
Specialties
- Constitutional Law
- Supreme Court
Before coming to the FIU College of Law as a member of the founding faculty in 2002, Professor Baker held the James Madison Chair in constitutional law that Congress endowed at Drake University Law School to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. From 1985 to 1987, he worked at the Supreme Court of the United States; first as a Judicial Fellow and then as Acting Administrative Assistant to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist.
From 1979 to 1998, Professor Baker was a member of the faculty at Texas Tech University School of Law, where he held the Alvin R. Allison Distinguished Professorship and received every teaching award the law school and the University conferred. He was the Distinguished Fulbright Professor of American Constitutional Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Greece in 1992. He was a visiting professor at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida in 1994 and at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary in 2007. Professor Baker has been awarded tenure at three different universities.
By appointment of the Chief Justice, Professor Baker was a member of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure from 1990 to 1995, for which he received a formal Commendation for Distinguished Service from the Judicial Conference of the United States. The Institute for Educational Affairs awarded Professor Baker the Bicentennial of the Constitution Award in Legal Education in 1987. He was a member of the Board of Editors of the Journal of Supreme Court History from 1991 to 1993. He served as the Associate Reporter to the Federal Courts Study Committee from 1989 to 1990 and the Board of Directors of the American Judicature Society from 2000 to 2002. Professor Baker was elected a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers in 2004 and was designated a life member of the American Law Institute in 2009. He also was designated a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in 2011. He was on the Legal Policy Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation from 1998 to 2012. From 2012 to 2015, he served on the Advisory Committee of the Journal of Legal Education. He is a biographee in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who Among American Teachers, and the Directory of American Scholars, Who’s Who in the World, International Who’s Who of Intellectuals, Directory of American Scholars; et alia. In 2018, the Marquis Who’s Who Publications Board recognized Professor Baker with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award for career longevity and demonstrated excellence in law and legal education.
As a public intellectual, Professor Baker publishes commentaries and is frequently quoted in the national media and on social media as an expert in constitutional law and the federal courts. He has appeared on Slate.com, NPR, Law.com, CNN’s Burden of Proof, C-SPAN, PrawfsBlawg.com, and numerous legal education programs for lawyers and judges.
Professor Baker is a legal scholar of the first rank. He has authored eighteen books and editions, including two leading law school casebooks that are required texts at many law schools and the best-selling “Nutshell” on Constitutional Law. He has published more than 200 scholarly articles and other publications in leading journals and law reviews, including those at Harvard, Michigan, UCLA, Iowa, Emory, Kansas, Wake Forest, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Washington & Lee, William & Mary, and Florida State, as well as essays in the A.B.A. Journal, American Journal of Legal History, Journal of Legal Education, Constitutional Commentary, Judicature, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Green Bag 2d, and the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. Professor Baker published the first ever article in the inaugural issue of the FIU Law Review. He served on the advisory panel for Garner’s Modern American Usage 3d Edition and Black’s Law Dictionary 9th Edition.
After graduating from law school, Professor Baker clerked for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His law school recognitions included: U.S. Department of Justice Honors Program, Moot Court Board, Law Review Board, High Honors, Order of the Coif, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Society.
- A Primer on the Jurisdiction of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, (3d ed. 2023)
- A Primer on Supreme Court Practices and Procedures, A.B.A. Preview of Supreme Court Cases (2022)
- First Amendment Law: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion (LexisNexis 3d ed. 2014) (with Arthur D. Hellman & William D. Araiza).
- Skills & Values: Constitutional Law (LexisNexis 2013) (with William D. Araiza, Olympia R. Duhart & Steven I. Friedland).
- A Primer on the Jurisdiction of the U.S. Courts of Appeals (Federal Judicial Center 2d ed. 2009).
- Appellate Courts: Structures, Functions, Processes, and Personnel (LexisNexis 2d ed. 2006) (with Daniel J. Meador & Joan E. Steinman).
- Link is no longer available on LexisNexus
- https://cap-press.com/books/isbn/9780820570150/Appellate-Courts-Second-Edition (Link is available on publisher’s website.)
- Constitutional Analysis in a Nutshell (West Academic Publ’g 2d ed. 2003) (with the late Jerre S. Williams).
- Can a Good Christian be a Good Lawyer? Homilies, Witnesses, and Reflections (Univ. of Notre Dame Press 1998) (editor with Timothy W. Floyd).
- Rationing Justice on Appeal: The Problems of the U.S. Courts of Appeals (West Publ’g Co. 1994).
- Link is no longer available.
- Are Dog Fight Videos Protected by the First Amendment?, Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases at 11 (Oct. 5, 2009) (U.S. v. Stevens, 559 U.S. 460 (2010)).
- Link is no longer available.
- Storm Center—The Year Ahead in the Supreme Court, Slate.com (Oct. 4, 2004).
- A Primer on Supreme Court Procedures, Preview of United States Supreme Court Cases at 475 (Aug. 9, 2004).
- Link is no longer available.
- Bush v. Gore Could Happen Again, Jurist-The Legal Education network: Legal Forum (June 14, 2004).
- Towards a “More Perfect Union”—Some Thoughts on Amending the Constitution, 10 Widener J. Pub. L. 1 (2000).
- Taming “Tough Law”—Pop quizzes can aid the teaching of Constitutional Law, The Law Teacher, Fall 1998, at 7.
- Link is no longer available.
- Taming “Tough Law”—Pop quizzes can aid the teaching of Constitutional Law, The Law Teacher, Fall 1998, at 7.
- A View to the Future of Judicial Federalism: “Neither Out Far Nor in Deep,” 45 Case W. Res. L. Rev. 705 (1995).
- Exercising the Amendment Power to Disapprove of Supreme Court Decisions: A Proposal for a “Republican Veto,” 22 Hastings Const. L.Q. 325 (1995).
- Imagining the Alternative Futures of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 28 Ga. L. Rev. 913 (1994).
- An Assessment of Past Extramural Reforms of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 28 Ga. L. Rev. 863 (1994).
- Some Preliminary Thoughts on Long-Range Planning for the Federal Judiciary, 23 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 1 (1992).
- Why Congress Should Repeal the Federal Employers’ Liability Act of 1908, 28 Harv. J. on Legis. 79 (1992).
- The Impropriety of Expert Witness Testimony on the Law, 40 U. Kan. L. Rev. 325 (1992).
- On Redrawing Circuit Boundaries—Why the Proposal to Divide the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is Not Such A Good Idea, 22 Ariz. St. L.J. 917 (1990).
- Thinking About Federal Jurisdiction—Of Serpents and Swallows, 17 St. Mary’s L.J. 239 (1986).
- The Ambiguous Independent and Adequate State Ground in Criminal Cases: Federalism Along a Mobius Strip, 19 Ga. L. Rev. 799 (1985).
- A Compendium of Proposals to Reform the United States Courts of Appeals, 37 U. Fla. L. Rev. 225 (1985).
- A Postscript on Precedent in the Divided Fifth Circuit, 36 Sw. L.J. 725 (1982).
- Precedent Times Three: Stare Decisis in the Divided Fifth Circuit, 35 Sw. L.J. 687 (1981).
Latest News:
- Prof. Baker publishes 2023 annual supplement to his coauthored casebook
- Professor Thomas E. Baker publishes new edition of “A Primer on the Jurisdiction of the U.S. Courts of Appeals”
- Professor Thomas E. Baker has published a new Edition of his bestselling casebook on the First Amendment
- Professor Baker Publishes “Constitutional Analysis in a Nutshell”
- Professor Baker Presented Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who’s Who
- Professor Thomas E. Baker has published a new Edition of his casebook on the law of the First Amendment
- Prof. Baker quoted in The National Law Journal
- Professor Thomas E. Baker completes the republication of Walter F. Murphy's Congress and the Court
- Professor Baker co-authors new con law book