Thomas E. Baker

Thomas Eugene Baker is a constitutional law scholar, Professor of Law, and founding member of the Florida International University College of Law. With more than three decades of teaching experience, Baker has authored twelve books, including two leading casebooks, has published more than 100 scholarly articles in leading law journals, and has received numerous teaching awards.

Baker graduated from Florida State University (B.S., 1974, cum laude), double majoring in Economics and Political Science, and from the University of Florida College of Law (J.D., 1977, High Honors), where he was a board member of the Florida Law Review and a Moot Court Board Editor and Supervisor. He graduated in the top 3 percent of his class and was inducted into the Order of the Coif.

After clerking in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1977–79), Baker worked at the Supreme Court of the United States as a Judicial Fellow (1985–86) and as Acting Administrative Assistant to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist (1986–87).

By appointment of the Chief Justice, Baker was a member of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (1990–95) for which he received a formal Commendation for Distinguished Service to the Federal Courts from the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Baker served on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Supreme Court History (1991–93), the Legal Policy Advisory Board of the Washington Legal Foundation (1998–2012), the Board of Directors of the American Judicature Society (2000–02), and the Advisory Committee of the Journal of Legal Education (2012–15).

Baker is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and is a Life Member of the American Law Institute.

From 1979 to 1998, Baker was a faculty member at Texas Tech University School of Law, where he held the Alvin R. Allison Distinguished Professorship and received multiple awards for his teaching and research.

In 1998, Baker accepted the position as Director of the Constitutional Law Center at Drake University Law School where he also held the James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law endowed by Congress.

In 2002, Baker became a founding faculty member of the Florida International University College of Law, where he teaches constitutional law. He is a recipient of the FIU Top Scholar Award (2012), the FIU Book Author Award (2012), and the FIU Faculty Recognition Award (2010). In addition, students have recognized his work by honoring him twice with the Professor of the Year Award.

Baker has been a visiting professor at the University of Florida College of Law and at the William & Mary School of Law. He has also taught American constitutional law as a Distinguished Fulbright Professor at the University of Athens in Greece.

The following is a selection of Baker’s writings.

Casebooks

• First Amendment Law: Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Religion (LexisNexis 3d ed. 2014) (with Arthur D. Hellman & William D. Araiza).
• Appellate Courts: Structures, Functions, Processes, and Personnel (LexisNexis 2d ed. 2006) (with Daniel J. Meador & Joan E. Steinman).

Selected Books

• Skills & Values: Constitutional Law (LexisNexis 2013) (with William D. Araiza, Olympia R. Duhart & Steven I. Friedland).
• At War with Civil Rights and Civil Liberties (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2006) (editor with John F. Stack, Jr.).
• Constitutional Analysis in a Nutshell (West Academic Publ’g 2d ed. 2003) (with the late Jerre S. Williams).
• Amicus Humoriae: An Anthology of Legal Humor (Carolina Academic Press 2003) (with Robert M. Jarvis & Andrew J. McClurg).

Selected Articles

• Constitutional Theory in a Nutshell, 13 WM & MARY BILL RTS. J. 1 (2005).
• A Primer on Supreme Court Procedures, 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).