John Q. Barrett

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, and he is the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York.  He is a graduate of Georgetown University (1983) and Harvard Law School (1986).

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 thousands of readers who are interested in Justice Robert H. 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 Robert H. 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 very close working relationship and friendship during the New Deal years and World War II, is available in paperback in bookstores and on line, including through Amazon.Com and Barnes&Noble.Com.   That Man, a Main Selection of the Book of the Month Club and the History Book Club and a Choice Outstanding Academic title, has been reviewed prominently in many publications, including The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Monthly, The New Republic and Legal Times.  Professor Barrett has discussed That Man in major media and public venues throughout the United States, including on NPR's "All Things Considered".

Recent Activities:   Professor Barrett's article, A Rehnquist Ode on the Vinson Court (circa Summer 1953), which will be published later this month in The Green Bag 2d, is available for downloading through the Social Science Research Network (SSRN):  click here.
     Last November, Professor Barrett helped to organize and participated as a panelist in the Presidential Libraries/National Archives conference, "The Presidency & the Supreme Court," at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York.  Last September, Professor Barrett was featured in the report, "Gonzales Case Echoes FDR's AG Problems," on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition."  Last August, Professor Barrett gave the opening lecture at the first International Humanitarian Law Dialog, an unprecendented gathering of chief prosecutors from international criminal tribunals; this lecture is available for viewing on FORA.tv.  In July, he participated in a D.C. Circuit Historical Society examination of the Steel Seizure Cases, introduced former Solicitor General Seth P. Waxman's Robert H. Jackson Lecture at Chautauqua Institution and gave the principal speech at the Jackson Center's annual Jackson Society summer meeting.
      During the past three years, Professor Barrett was a principal speaker at numerous conferences commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trial, including conferences in Nuremberg itself, at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow and, in the United States, at locations including Harvard University, the Truman Presidential Library, Chautauqua Institution, Washington University in St. Louis, and Bowling Green State University.  He appears in the film Hitler's Courts:  Betrayal of the Rule of Law in Nazi Germany and in the PBS/WGBH American Experience documentary, The Nuremberg Trials.  His chapter "One Good Man":  The Jacksonian Shape of Nuremberg, is in The Nuremberg Trials:  International Criminal Law Since 1945 (K.G. Saur, München, 2006), and his chapter Terry v. Ohio:  The Fourth Amendment Reasonableness of Police Stops and Frisks Based on Less Than Probable Cause, appears in Criminal Procedure Stories (Foundation Press 2006).  

Before joining the St. John's faculty, Professor Barrett was Counselor during 1994-1995 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 Philadelphia (1986-1988).

In addition to teaching Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure, Professor Barrett has taught legal history 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.  Professor Barrett also has taught Constitutional Law modules in St. John's Summer Prep Program for College Students and a course, "Nuremberg, International Human Rights & Humanitarian Law," in Touro Law Center's summer program at the University of Potsdam Law School in Germany

Professor Barrett speaks regularly on the Supreme Court, Justice Jackson, Nuremberg, Franklin D. Roosevelt,  That Man and other legal and historical topics in public venues and to community, campus, corporate 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, serves on The Roosevelt Institution advisory board, is a member New York City Bar Association and its Legal History Committee, and is a supporter of The Parent-Child Home Program and the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues.

Last updated 5/14/2008.

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