Faculty
A. Christopher Bryant

Contact Information

Education

  • BA, Hanover College
  • JD, University of Chicago

Links

Areas of Interest

  • Constitutional Law
  • American Legal History
  • Legislative Process and Statutory Interpretation
  • Federal Courts
  • Criminal Law and Procedure
  • Conflict of Laws

A. Christopher Bryant
Professor of Law

Professor Bryant is a prolific scholar and a popular teacher receiving the UC College of Law Goldman Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2005, 2007, and 2008. Prior to joining the faculty here, he spent three years on the faculty of the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he was voted Law Professor of the Year in 2001-02.

After earning his JD from the University of Chicago Law School, Professor Bryant clerked for James L. Buckley of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was a litigation associate at Shea & Gardner in Washington, D.C. and Assistant Senate Legal Counsel in the U.S. Senate Office of Legal Counsel.

Publications

Presentations

  • The Pledge of Allegiance and the First Amendment, The Honorable Steve Chabot's 2004 Congressional Youth Delegation, Cincinnati, OH (April 26, 2004)
  • The Fifth Amendment Privilege Against Self-Incrimination, The Ohio Center for Law-Related Education's Thirteenth Annual Law and Citizenship Conference, Columbus, OH (October 27, 2003)
  • Youngstown Revisited, University of Cincinnati College of Law, Cincinnati, OH (November 25, 2002)
  • Ex Parte Quirin Revisited, University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, WI (November 8, 2002) (with Carl Tobias)
  • The Constitution and the Three Branches of Government, Introduction to Law Week, Boyd School of Law (August 2001)
  • Reading the Law in the Office of Calvin Fletcher, Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History, Princeton, NJ (October 2000)
  • The Legislative Branch, Introduction to Law Week, Boyd School of Law (August 1999 & 2000)
  • The 2000 Census, Reapportionment, and Redistricting, at Seminar: Current Developments in Law and Public Policy, Boyd School of Law (June 2000)
  • The Supreme Court's End-of-the-Term Federalism Decisions, to Staff, Senate Judiciary Committee (July 1999)
  • The First Thirteenth Amendment, Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History, Seattle, WA (October 1998)

Courses

  • Conflicts of Law
  • Constitutional Law I
  • Constitutional Law II
  • Legislation & Statutory Interpretation

November 2009

Chris published The Empirical Judiciary, 25 Const. Comment. 467 (2009) (reviewing David L. Faigman, Constitutional Fictions: A Unified Theory of Constitutional Facts (2008)). He presented The Pursuit of Perfection: The Extent of Congressional Power to Enforce the Reconstruction Amendments at Toldeo as part of its Faculty Workshop Series.

October 2009

Chris’s article, Quirin Revisited, 2003 Wis. L. Rev. 309 (with Carl Tobias), was cited in Robert J. Pushaw, Jr., Creating Legal Rights for Suspected Terrorists: Is the Court Being Courageous or Politically Pragmatic? 84 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1975 (2009).

Summer 2009

Chris presented Foreign Law as Legislative Fact in Constitutional Cases as part of the 13th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series. Two of his articles were cited:

May 2009

Chris’s essay, The Empirical Judiciary (reviewing David L. Faigman, Constitutional Fictions: A Unified Theory of Constitutional Facts (Oxford University Press 2008)) was accepted for publication in peer-reviewed Constitutional Commentary.

Chris participated on a panel at the College on California’s Proposition 8 that was cosponsored by Out and Allies and the Women's Center.

Chris’s article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in John O. McGinnis & Charles W. Mulaney, Judging Facts Like Law, 25 Const. Comment. 69 (2009).

April 2009

Chris completed a draft of his essay, The Empirical Judiciary (reviewing David L. Faigman, Constitutional Fictions: A Unified Theory of Constitutional Facts (Oxford University Press, 2008)).

Chris’ article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in Caitlin E. Borgmann, Rethinking Judicial Deference to Legislative Fact-finding, 84 Ind. L.J. 1 (2009).

March 2009

Chris acted as the discussant at a faculty workshop at the College by Kevin Collins (Indiana), Wolves in Sheep's Clothing: Distinguishing Inventive Things From Inventive Thoughts in Patents Claiming Diagrams, Computer Models and Other Signs as part of the College’s Scholar Exchange Program. (Chris led a faculty workshop at Indiana last month on A Typology of Legislative Facts in Constitutional Adjudication.)

Chris offered some remarks at a Federalist Society program at the College on a paper by David Mayer (Capital), The Myth of Laissez-Faire Constitutionalism: Liberty of Contract during the Lochner Era, 36 Hastings Const. L.Q. 217 (2009). Chris’s article, Youngstown Revisited, 29 Hastings Const. L.Q. 373 (2002) (with Carl Tobias), was cited in Michael J. Turner, Fade to Black: The Formalization of Jackson's Youngstown Taxonomy by Hamdan and Medellin, 58 Am. U. L. Rev. 665 (2009).

February 2009

Chris presented his latest paper, A Typology of Legislative Facts in Constitutional Adjudication, at Indiana-Bloomington as part of our Scholar Exchange Program. His article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Legislative Supremacy in the United States?: Rethinking the “Enrolled Bill” Doctrine, 97 Geo. L.J. 323 (2009).

December 2008

Two of Chris’s articles were cited:

November 2008

Chris's article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in Gillian E. Metzger, Administrative Law as the New Federalism, 57 Duke L.J. 2023 (2008).

Summer 2008

Chris presented United States Supreme Court Review to the Cincinnati Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. He recorded a podcast for the Federalist Society on the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Santos.

Chris presented Legislative Facts in Constitutional Adjudication as part of the 12th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series.

Two of Chris's articles were cited:

June 2008

Chris's article, Youngstown Revisited, 29 Hastings Const. L.Q. 373 (2002) (with Carl Tobias), was cited in Mark C. Rahdert, Double-checking Executive Emergency Power: Lessons from Hamdi and Hamdan, 80 Temp. L. Rev. 451 (2007).

May 2008

Chris won the Goldman Prize for Teaching Excellence. His scholarship was featured in the University Libraries' 17th Annual Authors, Editors and Composers Reception.

April 2008

Chris's article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in Robet Glicksman, Nothing Is Real: Protecting the Regulatory Void through Federal Preemption by Inaction, 26 Va. Envtl. L.J. 5 (2008).

March 2008

Chris published The Third Death of Federalism, 17 Cornell J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 101 (2007).

February 2008

Chris published Presidential Signing Statements and Congressional Oversight, 16 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 169 (2007). He participated as a judge in the state's We The People state finals competition in Columbus.

Chris participated as an “idea presenter” at the Ohio Legal Scholarship Workshop at Ohio State. His article, Retroactive Application of "New Rules" and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1 (2002), was cited in Robert C. Post & Neil S. Siegel, Theorizing the Law/Politics Distinction: Neutral Principles, Affirmative Action, and the Enduring Legacy of Paul Mishkin, 95 Cal. L. Rev. 1473 (2007); Brian R. Means, Federal Habeas Practitioner Guide (Thomson-West, 2007 Supp.); and Peter W. Low & John J. Jeffries. Jr., Federal Courts and the Law of Federal-State Relations (Foundation Press, 6th ed. 2007).

November 2007

Chris attended the AALS Faculty Recruitment Conference in Washington, D.C. as chair of the College's Faculty Appointments Committee.

October 2007

Chris wrote and submitted three more entries to be included in the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Macmillan, 2008): overviews of Nixon v. Fitzgerald, City of Philadelphia v. New Jersey, and Missouri v. Jenkins.

Several of Chris's articles were cited:

Summer 2007

Chris presented Presidential Signing Statements: Congress's Power and Duty to Oversee the Execution of the Laws as part of the 11th Annual UC Faculty Summer Scholarship Series. He completed the article and submitted it to the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal as part of a symposium issue on The Last Word? The Constitutional Implications of Presidential Signing Statements.

Chris completed thirteen encyclopedia entries on various constitutional law topics to appear in The Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (David S. Tanenhaus et al. eds., Macmillian).

June 2007

Chris was selected by the Class of 2007 to confer the ceremonial hoods at graduation.

May 2007

Chris won the 2007 Goldman Prize for Excellence in Law Teaching. His article, The Third Death of Federalism, was accepted for publication in the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy.

Chris presented The Supreme Court's Drug Problem at Chase. His article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in in Kevin M. Stack, The Constitutional Foundations of Chenery, 116 Yale L.J. 952 (2007).

April 2007

Chris's book, Powers Reserved for the People and the States: A History of the Ninth and Tenth Amendments (Greenwood Press 2007) (with Thomas B. McAffee & Jay S. Bybee)., received a very favorable review by David Ponet (Columbia) in the Law and Politics Book Review published by the Law & Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. The review praised the book's "lucid description of these federalism amendments and their applications – from their moment of inception to the present day."

Chris's article, The Third Death of Federalism, was accepted for publication in the Cornell Journal of Law & Public Policy.

March 2007

Chris participated in a Symposium on Presidential Signing Statements hosted by the Institute of Bill of Rights Law and the William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal.

Chris and Ronna Schneider coached a Highlands High School We the People Team that won the Kentucky state competition and will compete in the national contest in Washington, D.C. in April.

Two of Chris' articles were cited:

February 2007

Chris participated in the Eighth Ohio Legal Scholarship Workshop at Capital University Law School. He served as a judge for the Ohio We The People Competition in Columbus, OH.

Chris's article, Remanding to Congress: The Supreme Court's New "On the Record" Constitutional Review of Federal Statutes, 86 Cornell L. Rev. 328 (2001) (with Timothy J. Simeone), was cited in Kenneth A. Bamberger, Regulation as Delegation: Private Firms, Decisionmaking, and Accountability in the Administrative State, 56 Duke L.J. 377 (2006).

Please see Faculty News Archives for earlier issues.