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
Academy Nuremberg Principles 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.
Justice Robert H. 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 periodic emails to tens of thousands of
subscribers around the world who are interested
in Justice Jackson and related topics. To read
archived copies of some 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.
That Man: An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D.
Roosevelt. Professor Barrett discovered and edited
Justice Jackson's previously unknown, never
published, now acclaimed book That Man: An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D.
Roosevelt (Oxford University Press). That Man, Jackson's intimate, eloquent memoir of FDR
from their first meeting as young men in 1911
through their close working relationship and friendship during
the New Deal years and World War II, is both FDR
biography and Jackson autobiography. That Man, which was a Book of the Month Club main
selection, has been reviewed
prominently, is quoted regularly, and
is assigned in college and university courses.
Recent Highlights:
At a January 28 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 applicants 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. In August, Professor Barrett lectured at Chautauqua
Institution on presidents and judicial appointments. In June,
he was a guest lecturer in Creighton
University's summer law program in Nuremberg. On May 4,
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, Professor
Barrett has taught Criminal Procedure; 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 courses in summer programs at the
University of Potsdam Law School in Germany, at
ISDE/University of Barcelona in Spain, and in Nuremberg.
Professor Barrett speaks regularly on the Supreme
Court, Justice Jackson, Nuremberg, Franklin D. Roosevelt, 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 January 29, 2013.