Thomas E. Baker
Professor of Law
305-348-8342 (phone)
thomas.baker@fiu.edu
B.S., Florida State University
J.D., University of Florida College of Law
With over three decades of law teaching experience, Professor Baker is a nationally-recognized constitutionalist who has received numerous awards for his teaching, including the first-ever Pioneer Award for his commitment and dedication to students from the FIU Student Bar Association in 2004. Before joining the FIU College of Law faculty, he 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, first as a Judicial Fellow and then as Acting Administrative Assistant to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. From 1979-98, 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 awarded. He was the Distinguished Fulbright Professor of American Constitutional Law at the University of Athens in 1992. He also was a visiting professor at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law at the University of Florida and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William & Mary. He was a member of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure, by appointment of the Chief Justice, from 1990-1995, for which he received a formal Commendation for Distinguished Service from the Judicial Conference of the United States. He was the recipient of the Bicentennial of the Constitution Award in Legal Education in 1987. He 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.
Professor Baker publishes commentaries and is frequently quoted in the national 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; and numerous legal education programs for lawyers and judges. He has authored twelve books, including two leading law school casebooks and the popular “Nutshell” on Constitutional Law. He has published more than 100 scholarly articles in the leading law reviews, including 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, Journal of Legal Education, Constitutional Commentary, Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly, Greenbag 2d, and the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. After graduation from law school, he clerked for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. His law school recognitions included Law Review, High Honors, and Order of the Coif.
Recent Books:
First Amendment Law: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion (Lexis-Nexis Publishing Co. 2006) (with Arthur D. Hellman & William D. Araiza)
Appellate Courts: Structures, Functions, Processes, and Personnel (Lexis-Nexis Publishing Co. 2d ed. 2006) (with Daniel J. Meador & Joan E. Steinman)
At War with Civil Rights & Civil Liberties (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. 2005) (editor with John F. Stack, Jr.)
Constitutional Analysis in a Nutshell (Westgroup Publishing 2d ed. 2003)
(with the late Jerre S. Williams)
Amicus Humoriae: An Anthology of Legal Humor (Carolina Academic Press 2003)
(editor with Robert M. Jarvis & Andrew J. McClurg)
Recent Articles:
Constitutional Theory in a Nutshell , 13 Wm & Mary B. Rts . J. 1 (2005)
A Primer on Supreme Court Procedures , A.B.A. Preview of United States Supreme
Court Cases at 475 (Aug. 9, 2004)
A Compendium of Clever and Amusing Law Review Writings—An Idiosyncratic Bibliography of Miscellany with In Kind Annotations Intended as a Humorous Diversion for the Gentle Reader , 51 Drake L. Rev. 105 (2002)