Mark Tushnet

Mark Victor Tushnet (born 18 November 1945) is a leading scholar of constitutional law and legal history, and currently the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Tushnet is one of the more controversial figures in constitutional theory at Harvard University and he is identified with the critical legal studies movement and once stated in an article that he would seek to reach results that would "advance the cause of socialism".

Tushnet is a main proponent of the idea that judicial review should be strongly limited and that the Constitution should be returned "to the people." In 2020, Tushnet plans to publish his new book extending his previous writing about judicial over-reach concerning the process of judicial review which he originally started discussing in his 1999 book on this subject.

In 1967, Tushnet received his A.B. from Harvard College. He later received an M.A. in history from Yale University and his J.D. from the Yale Law School. Tushnet has been a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and he taught for many years at the Georgetown University Law Center.

Tushnet served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall on the Supreme Court between 1972 and 1973. In a 1996 congressional hearing on President Bill Clinton's veto of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, Tushnet testified about his involvement in Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that struck down state laws prohibiting abortion. During questioning it was alleged that a memorandum written by Tushnet to Marshall had a significant influence on the outcome of the case. More recently, he commented on the power of the president to pardon himself, composition of the Court, and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. He is also widely quoted in the press as an expert on the First Amendment right to free speech and the scope of presidential powers. In 2016, Tushnet was listed among the ten most frequently cited law professors.

One of the more controversial figures in constitutional theory, he is identified with the 'critical legal studies' movement and once stated in an article that, were he asked to decide actual cases as a judge, he would seek to reach results that would "advance the cause of socialism". Tushnet is a main proponent of the idea that judicial review should be strongly limited and that the Constitution should be returned "to the people." Tushnet is, with Harvard Law Professor Vicki Jackson, the co-author of a casebook entitled Comparative Constitutional Law (Foundation Press, 2d ed. 2006).

In 2020, Tushnet plans to publish his new book extending his previous writing about judicial over-reach concerning the process of judicial review which he originally started discussing in his 1999 book on this subject.

Tushnet is Jewish. His wife, Elizabeth Alexander, is a Unitarian, and formerly directed the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. She now works in private practice. Their daughter Rebecca Tushnet is also a professor of law at Harvard Law School. Their other daughter Eve is a celibate lesbian Roman Catholic author and blogger.