John Q. Barrett

Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law

John Q. Barrett is St. John's University's Benjamin N. Cardozo Professor of Law. He is teaching first-year Constitutional Law this semester. He also teaches Criminal Procedure and Legal History courses. Professor Barrett also is the Elizabeth S. Lenna Fellow at the Robert H. Jackson Center in Jamestown, New York. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and Harvard Law School, a former U.S. government lawyer and investigator, and a prominent public lecturer and regular media commentator on law, government, and history topics.

Jackson biographer: Professor Barrett is writing a biography of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert H, Jackson (1892-1954). It will include the first inside account of Justice Jackson's service, by appointment of President Truman, as the chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Germany, following World War II, of principal surviving Nazi leaders.

The Jackson List: Professor Barrett sends essays regarding Justice Jackson and related topics to over 100,000 readers around the world. To read archived Jackson List essays, click here. To join The Jackson List, a one-way list that does not display recipient identities or email addresses, sign up on the archive site or email [email protected].

Some recent activities: On December 8, Professor Barrett participated in a National Constitution Center webinar, "The Constitutional Legacy of Justice Robert H. Jackson" (video here on YouTube). On December 4, Barrett lectured at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, Israel, on "The Nuremberg Trials--80 Years Ago, Today, & Tomorrow." On October 28, he gave a lecture, "The Nuremberg Trials of Nazi War Criminals, Then and Now," at the Dr. Harold C. Deutsch World War II Round Table in St. Paul, MN (YouTube). He also spoke earlier that day, about Nuremberg, to the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas. On October 17, Professor Barrett gave a lecture, "Observations on Constitutional Judging," at Seton Hall Law School's Symposium on History and Tradition. On October 12, he was a closing panel speaker at the International Nuremberg Principles Academy's Nuremberg Forum 2025, "Strengthening International Criminal Law: 80 Years Since Nuremberg" (YouTube). On September 19, Professor Barrett gave a lecture, "Respecting Who Legislates," at a symposium on St. John's Law Faculty scholarship. On September 17, he was the principal speaker at a United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania program and reenactment, "Trial of the 20th Century: The 1935-1937 Tax Trial of Andrew W. Mellon." On September 10, Professor Barrett gave a Nuremberg trial 80th anniversary lecture, "Away Without Leave but Back in Washington, Briefly: Nazi Prosecutor Justice Robert H. Jackson on the Road to Nuremberg, September 1945" (YouTube & C-SPAN). On August 11, Professor Barrett introduced, at Chautauqua Institution, Professor Kim Lane Scheppele's Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court (YouTube). On July 11, Professor Barrett lectured in Nuremberg about Justice Jackson and the Nuremberg trials, in Creighton University's "Nuremberg to The Hague (N2H)" program. On June 5, he had a conversation at the Robert H. Jackson Center with Professor Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. Attorney, on "The U.S. Department of Justice, Then & Now" (YouTube). Professor Barrett also recently published "Barnette's Robert H. Jackson: The Constitution Protects Individual Conscience When the Cost to Society Is Not Too High" in the Missouri Law Review; "Charles Reich to Justice Black (1955): Is Paul, Weiss the Law Firm for Me?," on the Balkinization blog; "Felix Frankfurter, Collector of People," in the Touro Law Review (on SSRN); "Justice Lazansky on 'Repose' at Chief Judge Cardozo's New York Court of Appeals," in Judicial Notice (SSRN); and "William R. Casto's Worthy Work on Robert H. Jackson," in the Texas Tech Law Review. (For more, see the c.v. link to the right, and the many hyperlinks therein.)

Justice Jackson's book That Man: Fifty years after 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, a memoir of FDR from Jackson first meeting him in 1911 through their close working relationship and friendship during the New Deal years and World War II, is FDR biography, Jackson autobiography, and Jackson's renowned writing.

Before joining the St. John's faculty, John Q. Barrett was Counselor to Inspector General Michael R. Bromwich, U.S. Department of Justice, from 1994-1995. From 1988-1993, Barrett was Associate Counsel in the Office of Independent Counsel Lawrence E. Walsh (Iran-Contra). From 1986-1988, Barrett was 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, Criminal Procedure, and Legal History courses, including on the Nuremberg trials, at St. John's, Professor Barrett has taught Nuremberg-related courses in summer programs at the University of Potsdam Law School in Germany, at ISDE/University of Barcelona in Spain, and in Creighton University's program in Nuremberg.

Professor Barrett speaks regularly about the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Robert H. 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 is a trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum and a trustee emeritus of the Historical Society of the New York Courts. He previously chaired the New York City Bar Association's Legal History Committee, served on the International Expert Advisory Council of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, and served on the Robert H. Jackson Center board.

At St. John's, Professor Barrett is adviser to the student chapter of the American Constitution Society (ACS).

Last updated February 2, 2026.

February 5, 2026: Nuremberg lecture, Veterans Breakfast Club (online)

March 27, 2026: Conference on Judicial Biography, City University of New York (CUNY)

April 10, 2026: Program on prosecuting, Robert H. Jackson Center, Jamestown, NY (online)

April 15, 2026: Albany Law School, Albany, NY

April 17, 2026: Conference on Jack Balkin, New York Law School, New York, NY

April 28, 2026: Nuremberg lecture, Harvard Club, New York City.

April 30, 2026: Law Day lecture on Nuremberg & the Rule of Law, Suffolk County Bar Assn., Happaugue, NY

May 12, 2026: Supreme Court Review, Federal Bar Association, EDNY Chapter

June 2026: Jackson study seminar, Robert H. Jackson Center, Jamestown, NY

July 2026: Introducing the 22nd Robert H. Jackson Lecture on the Supreme Court of the United States, Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY

July 2026: Teaching and lecturing in Nuremberg, Germany

October 1, 2026: Nuremberg conference, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH

October 2026: Nuremberg conference, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

 

Last updated February 2, 2026.

Felix Frankfurter, Collector of People, 39 Touro Law Review 777-94 (2024) (abstract on SSRN)

William R. Casto’s Worthy Work on Robert H. Jackson, 55 Texas Tech Law Review 1041-49 (2023)

Principled Legal Practice by Justice Robert H. Jackson at Nuremberg, 230 Military Law Review 241-55 (2022) (online)

Law Clerk John Costelloe’s Photographs of the Stone Court Justices, October 1943, 46 Journal of Supreme Court History 162-80 (2021) (SSRN)

Attribution Time: Cal Tinney’s 1937 Quip, "A Switch in Time’ll Save Nine", 73 Oklahoma Law Review 229-43 (Winter 2021) (download from SSRN)

Charles Reich, New Dealer, 36 Touro Law Review 797-805 (2020) (SSRN)

The St. John’s Path to New York Judicial Service, 93 St. John's Law Review 555-61 (2019) (SSRN)

Robert H. Jackson, The Faith of My Fathers,168 Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Review 1-16 (2019) (Intro. & Afterword) (SSRN)

Attorney General Robert H. Jackson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 44 Journal of Supreme Court History 90-108 (2019)

Justice Jackson in the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ Cases, 13 Florida International University Law Review 827-52 (2019)

Jackson, Vinson, Reed, and “Reds”: The Second Circuit Justices’ Denials of Bail to the Bail Fund Trustees, 7 Journal of Law (2 Journal of In-Chambers Practice) 19-32 (2017) (SSRN)

A New Chief Justice in the Sight of His Predecessor: Stone and Hughes, Summer 1941, 42 Journal of Supreme Court History 202-08 (2017) (SSRN)

The Nuremberg Trials: A Summary Introduction, 39 Loyola International & Comparative Law Review 336-50 (2017)

Bringing Nuremberg Home:  Justice Jackson’s Path Back to Buffalo, October 4, 1946, 60 Buffalo Law Review 295-321 (2012) (SSRN)

Rehnquist’s Missing Letter:  A Former Law Clerk’s 1955 Thoughts on Justice Jackson & Brown, 53 Boston College Law Rev. 631-60 (2012) (with Brad Snyder) (SSRN)

Henry T. King, Jr., at Case, and on the Nuremberg Case, 60 Case Western Reserve Law Review 583-92 (Spring 2010), reprinted in Henry T. King, Jr., A Life Dedicated to International Justice (Carolina Academic Press, Michael P. Scharf, ed., 2011)

Supreme Court Law Clerks' Reflections of October Term 1951, Including the Steel Seizure Cases, 82 St. John's Law Review 1239-90 (Fall 2008) (with Charles C. Hileman, Abner J. Mikva, James C.N. Paul, Neal P. Rutledge, Marshall L. Small, William H. Rehnquist, Gregory L. Peterson & Ken Gormley) (co-moderator) (SSRN abstract).

A Rehnquist Ode on the Vinson Court (circa Summer 1953), Green Bag 2d 289-306 (Spring 2008) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file)

Closing Reflections on Jackson and Barnette, in Recollections of West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 81 St. John's Law Review 755, 793-96 (Fall 2007) (with Gregory L. Peterson, E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., Shawn Francis Peters, Bennett Boskey, Gathie Barnett Edmonds & Marie Barnett Snodgrass) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

The Nuremberg Roles of Justice Robert H. Jackson, 6 Washington University Global Studies Law Review 511-25 (2007) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

The "Federalism Five" As Supreme Court Nominees, 1971-1991, 21 St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary 485-96 (Spring 2007) (SSRN abstract)

Supreme Court Law Clerks' Recollections of Brown v. Board of Education II, 79 St. John's Law Review 823-85 (2005) (introduction & moderator) (with Gordon B. Davidson, Daniel J. Meador, Earl E. Pollock & E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr.) (SSRN abstract).

A Commander's Power, A Civilian's Reason: Justice Jackson's Korematsu Dissent, 68 Law & Contemporary Problems 57-79 (Spring 2005) (SSRN abstract).

Albany in the Life Trajectory of Robert H. Jackson, 68 Albany Law Review 513-37 (2005) (SSRN abstract).

Supreme Court Law Clerks' Recollections of Brown v. Board of Education, 78 St. John's Law Review 515-67 (Summer 2004) introduction and moderator) (with John David Fassett, Earl E. Pollock, E. Barrett Prettyman, Jr., & Frank E.A. Sander) (SSRN abstract).

UT Alumnus, Supreme Court Amicus:  A Texas Lawyer's Letter About Law School Segregation, April 1950," 7 The Green Bag 2d 9-14 (Autumn 2003) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

Justice Jackson on "What the Law's Going to Be"--At Least Until Its "Gelding," 6 The Green Bag 2d 125-30 (Winter 2003) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

A Jackson Portrait for Jamestown, "A Magnet in the Room," 59 Buffalo Law Review 809-817 (Fall 2002) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

Teacher, Student, Ticket: John Frank, Leon Higginbotham, and One Afternoon at the Supreme Court—Not a Trifling Thing, 20 Yale Law & Policy Review 311-23 (2002) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

Special Division Agonistes, 5 Widener Law Symposium Journal 17-48 (Winter 2000) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

The Leak and the Craft:  A Hard Line Proposal to Stop Unaccountable Disclosures of Law Enforcement Information, 67 Fordham Law Review 613-37 (1999) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

Independent Counsel Law Improvements for the Next Five Years, 51 Administrative Law Review 631-56 (Spring 1999) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file).

Deciding the Stop and Frisk Cases:  A Look Inside the Supreme Court’s Conference, 72 St. John’s Law Review 749-844 (Fall 1998) (PDF file).

All or Nothing, or Maybe Cooperation:  Attorney General Power, Conduct, and Judgment in Relation to the Work of an Independent Counsel, 49 Mercer Law Review 519-51 (1998) (PDF file).

The Voices and Groups That Will Preserve (What We Can Preserve Of) Judicial Independence, 12 St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary 1-21 (1996) (PDF file).

Last updated February 3, 2025.

Some Alexander Hamilton, But Not So Much Hamilton, in the New Supreme Court, in Hamilton and the Law: Reading Today’s Most Contentious Legal Issues Through the Hit Musical (Cornell University Press, Lisa A. Tucker, editor, 2020) (abstract on SSRN)

Robert H. Jackson’s Cowslip Sandwich, in Table for Nine: Supreme Court Food Traditions & Recipes (Supreme Court Historical Society, Clare Cushman, ed., 2017)

Lecture, Legacies of Nuremberg, in Proceedings of the Tenth International Humanitarian Law Dialogs 63-77 (American Society of International Law, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 49, 2017).

Chapter author, Herbert Hoover and the Constitution, in The Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History (Ken Gormley, ed., New York University Press, 2016).

Chapter author, No College, No Prior Clerkship...:  How Jim Marsh Became Justice Jackson's Law Clerk, in Of Kings and Courtiers:  More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices (Todd C. Peppers & Clare Cushman, eds., University of Virginia Press, 2015).

Contributing editor, Judges of the District of New York and the Southern District of New York, 1789 to 2014 (Federal Bar Council, 2014).  

Tribute, Henry T. King, Jr., at Case, and on the Nuremberg Case, in Henry T. King, Jr.:  A Life Dedicated to International Justice 29-38 (Carolina Academic Press, Michael P. Scharf, ed., 2011)

Lecture, Remembering Departed "Nurembergers", in Proceedings of the Fourth International Humanitarian Law Dialogs 17-29 (American Society of International Law, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 43, Elizabeth Andersen & David M. Crane, eds., 2011) (SSRN abstract) (PDF file)

Lecture, Katherine B. Fite:  The Leading Female Lawyer at London & Nuremberg, 1945, in Proceedings of the Third International Humanitarian Law Dialogs 9-30 (American Society of International Law, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 42, Elizabeth Andersen & David M. Crane, eds., 2010) (PDF file)

Chapter author, Raphael Lemkin and 'Genocide' at Nuremberg, 1945-1946, in The Genocide Convention Sixty Years After Its Adoption (Christoph Safferling & Eckart Conze, eds., T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague, 2010) (PDF file)

Introducer & moderator, Nuremberg and Genocide:  Historical Perspectives (with former Nuremberg prosecutors Whitney R. Harris, Henry T. King, Jr., and Benjamin B. Ferencz), in Proceedings of the Second International Humanitarian Law Dialogs 9-54 (American Society of International Law, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 40, Elizabeth Andersen & David M. Crane, eds., 2009) (PDF file)

Lecture, The Path from the 1907 Hague Conference to Nuremberg and Forward, in Proceedings of the First International Humanitarian Law Dialogs (American Society of International Law, Studies in Transnational Legal Policy No. 39, Elizabeth Andersen & David M. Crane, eds., 2008) (PDF file of draft)

Chapter author, "One Good Man":  The Jacksonian Shape of Nuremberg, in The Nuremberg Trials:  International Criminal Law Since 1945 (Die Nürnberger Prozesse:  Völkerstrafrecht seit 1945) (Herbert R. Reginbogin & Christoph J.M. Safferling, eds., K.G. Saur, München, 2006) (click here for the book's Amazon.De page)

Chapter author, Terry v. Ohio:  The Fourth Amendment Reasonableness of Police Stops and Frisks Based on Less Than Probable Cause, in Criminal Procedure Stories:  An In-Depth Look at Leading Criminal Procedure Cases (Carol Steiker, ed., Foundation Press, 2006)

Editor, Robert H. Jackson, That Man:  An Insider's Portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt (Oxford University Press, 2003; paperback 2004)

Co-Editor, Litigation Ethics: Course Materials for Continuing Legal Education (ABA Section of Litigation, 2000) (with Professor Bruce A. Green, Fordham Law School) 

Encyclopedia entries:

*     Higginbotham, A. Leon, Jr.; Jackson, Robert H.; and Walsh, Lawrence E., in The Yale Biographical Dictionary of American Law (Roger K. Newman, ed., 2009)

*     Jackson, Robert Houghwout, in 11 The World Book Encyclopedia 16 (2009)

*     Jackson, Robert H., in 3 Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States 3-6 (David S. Tanenhaus, ed., MacMillian Reference USA/Gale, Cengage Learning, 5 vols., 2008). 

Last updated February 3, 2025.