John Q. Barrett is a Professor of Law at St.
John's University in New York City, where he teaches
Constitutional Law, Criminal Procedure and Legal History. He
also is Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow and a Board member at
the Robert H. Jackson
Center in Jamestown, New York, and he serves on the Expert
Advisory Committee of the International
Nuremberg Principles Academy in Nuremberg, Germany.
Professor Barrett has been named a "Professor of
the Year" by St. John's law students and received a Faculty
Outstanding Achievement Medal from the University. He is a
graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School.
Work on Justice Jackson: Professor
Barrett is writing a biography of the late U.S.
Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor
Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954). This work will
include the first inside account of Justice Jackson's service,
by appointment of President Truman, as the chief
prosecutor at Nuremberg, Germany, of the principal surviving
Nazi leaders during 1945 and 1946.
The Jackson List:
Professor Barrett sends occasional email to tens of thousands of
subscribers around the world who are interested
in Justice Jackson and related topics. To read
archived copies of Jackson List posts, click here. To join the Jackson List,
which does not display recipient identities or email
addresses, send a "subscribe" note to barrettj@stjohns.edu.
Justice Jackson's book That Man:
Fifty years after Robert H. Jackson's death, Professor
Barrett discovered and edited his previously unknown manuscript,
now an acclaimed book, That Man: An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D.
Roosevelt (Oxford University Press). That Man, an eloquent memoir of FDR from Jackson first
meeting in 1911 through their close working relationship and
friendship during Roosevelt's presidency, the New Deal years and
World War II, is both FDR biography and Jackson autobiography.
That Man, a Book of the Month Club main selection, has
been reviewed prominently and is assigned regularly in high
schools, colleges and graduate schools.
Recent highlights:
On May 1, Professor Barrett spoke about Justice
Jackson and his Supreme Court colleagues at the Harvard Club, New
York City. At a January 28 NYC Museum of Tolerance screening
of the film "Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today," Professor
Barrett discussed the international trial of the Nazi war criminals
and its enduring significance. On January 18, he spoke at a
NYU Law School public meeting on a proposal to permit law students
to take New York's bar exam after two, rather than three, years of
law school. On October 12, 2012, Professor Barrett
participated in a
panel before the premier of a new documentary film, Liberty
Under Law: The Robert H. Jackson Story, in which he
appears. Last August, Professor Barrett lectured at
Chautauqua Institution on presidents and judicial appointments.
Last June, he was a guest lecturer in Creighton
University's summer law program in Nuremberg. On May 4,
2012, he delivered the Second Circuit's Hands Lecture at the new
Robert H. Jackson U.S. Courthouse in Buffalo, New York.
Before joining the St. John's faculty, John Q. Barrett was
Counselor to U.S. Department of Justice Inspector General
Michael R. Bromwich. From 1988-1993, Barrett was Associate Counsel
in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh
(Iran/Contra). From 1986-1988, Barrett served as a
law clerk to Judge A. Leon
Higginbotham, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit.
In addition to teaching Constitutional Law and Criminal
Procedure, Professor Barrett has taught seminars
on American Judicial Biography, the Hughes and Stone
Courts (1930-46), and the Nuremberg Trial; Introduction
to Law & the Legal Profession; Professional
Responsibility; and White Collar
Crime. He also has taught Constitutional Law
modules in St. John's Summer Prep Program for College
Students and Nuremberg-related courses in summer
programs at the University of Potsdam Law School in
Germany, at ISDE/University of Barcelona in Spain, and in
Nuremberg itself.
Professor Barrett speaks regularly on the Supreme
Court, Justice Jackson, Nuremberg, FDR, and other legal and
historical topics in public venues and to community, campus,
religious, corporate, legal profession and other audiences and
groups throughout the United States and abroad.
Professor Barrett also is a regular national media
commentator on legal and historical issues.
Professor Barrett is a member of the Supreme Court Historical
Society, a member New
York City Bar Association, where he chairs
the Legal History Committee, and a supporter of The Parent-Child Home
Program and the National Association
for Urban Debate Leagues.
Last updated May 3, 2013.