Garrick B. Pursley joined the faculty in Fall 2010 as an Assistant Professor teaching Civil Procedure and Constitutional Law.  He studies a broad range of issues in constitutional and legal theory, federal courts, civil procedure, administrative law, and renewable energy law and policy.  Recent research has focused on constitutional and theoretical issues relating to federal preemption of state law, dormant constitutional preclusion of state action, state and local government authority over renewable energy policy, and the relevance of authorship in legal interpretation. 

His recent publications and working papers include Dormancy, Georgetown Law Journal (forthcoming 2012), Instrumental Federalism, 62 Alabama Law Review (invited article, forthcoming 2012), Federalism Compatibilists, Texas Law Review (book review, forthcoming 2011), Local Energy, Emory Law Journal (with Hannah Wiseman, forthcoming 2011), Preemption in CongressOhio State Law Journal (2010)  He has also recently contributed an invited piece on the Supreme Court’s United States v. Comstock decision to the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy and a symposium essay on recent preemption decisions to a Tulsa Law Review symposium.

Before joining the Toledo faculty, Pursley was an Assistant Professor in the Emerging Scholars Program at the University of Texas School of Law, where he taught courses on introductory and advanced constitutional law and seminars on administrative law and federalism.  He has been an active participant in litigation in his areas of interest, particularly in cases involving federal preemption.  He was the principal author of amicus briefs on behalf of constitutional law scholars in recent cases in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (Franks Investment Co. v. Union Pacific Railroad Co.) and the United State Supreme Court (Limmer, et al. v. Missouri Pacific Railroad Co.).

Pursley graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (BA, Philosophy, 2001) and from the University of Texas School of Law (JD, 2004), where he served as Articles Editor on the Texas Law Review.  After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Royce C. Lamberth of United States District Court for the District of Columbia (2004–2005) and the Honorable Timothy B. Dyk of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (2005–2006), and practiced at Susman Godfrey, LLP in Dallas, Texas (2006–2008).

 

Publications

Instrumental Federalism, 63 Alabama Law Review (forthcoming 2012) (invited).

Dormancy, 100 Georgetown Law Journal --- (forthcoming 2012).

Penal Deference and Other Oddities in United States v. Comstock, 5 Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy 98 (2010)

Federalism Compatibilists, 89 Texas Law Review (forthcoming 2011) (reviewing Robert A. Schapiro, Polyphonic Federalism: Toward the Protection of Fundamental Rights (Chicago, Chicago University Press 2009))

Local Energy, 60 Emory Law Journal (forthcoming 2011) (with Hannah J. Wiseman)

Preemption in Congress, 71 Ohio State Law Journal 509 (2010)

Preemption, Deference, and Constitutional Doubt, 35:2 Administrative and Regulatory Law News 5 (Winter 2010)

Avoiding Deference Questions, 44 Tulsa Law Review 557 (2009) (symposium)

The Structure of Preemption Decisions, 85 Nebraska Law Review 912 (2007)

Rationalizing Complete Preemption after Beneficial National Bank v. Anderson: A New Rule, A New Justification, 54 Drake Law Review 371 (2006)

 

Curriculum vitae

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