Maeva Marcus
ADDRESS: Home: 5600 Harwick Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20816
Office: Institute for Constitutional History, George Washington University Law School
2000 H Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20052
PHONE: Home: 301 320-4219
Office: 202 994-6562
Fax: 202 994-1684 E-mail: maevamarcus1@gmail.com
EDUCATION: B.A. — Brandeis University, 1962, magna cum laude with honors in Spanish Literature.
Ph.D. — Columbia University, 1975, with distinction in history
EXPERIENCE: Library of Congress: 2015 –
General Editor, Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise History of the Supreme Court of the
United States
New-York Historical Society: 2008 – 2020
Director, Institute for Constitutional History
The George Washington University Law School:
Director, Institute for Constitutional Studies, 2004 –
Research Professor of Law, 2006 –
Supreme Court Historical Society: 1993 – 2006
Director, Institute for Constitutional Studies, 1999 – 2003
Director and Editor, Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States,
1789-1800, January 1993 – 2006
Supreme Court of the United States: 1976 – 1993
Director and Editor, Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States,
1789-1800, January 1977 – 1993
University of California, Berkeley:
Faculty, Summer Institute on Constitutionalism 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989
Georgetown University Law Center:
Visiting Professor of Law, 1983-1987
University of Connecticut, Waterbury Branch:
Lecturer in History, February 1964-June 1964
Instructor in History, September 1964-June 1965
PUBLICATIONS: Truman and the Steel Seizure Case: the Limits of Presidential Power (Columbia
University Press, 1977; paperback, 1979; reprinted by Duke University Press, 1994).
Nominated for the Bancroft Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the Frederick Jackson Turner Award,
the Albert J. Beveridge Prize, and the David D. Lloyd Prize.
The Documentary History of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800, Volume 1
(in two parts), co-edited by James R. Perry, Columbia University Press, 1985; Volume 2
(Maeva Marcus, editor), 1988; Volume 3 (Maeva Marcus, editor), 1990; Volume 4
(Maeva Marcus, editor), 1992; Volume 5 (Maeva Marcus, editor), 1994; Volume 6
(Maeva Marcus, editor), 1998; Volume 7 (Maeva Marcus, editor), 2003; Volume 8
(Maeva Marcus, editor), 2007 .2
“Falling Under the Brandeis Spell,” Review essay, Yale Law Journal, (November, 1985).
“The Supreme Court: The First Ten Years,” in The Blessings of Liberty: Bicentennial
Lectures at the National Archives, Robert S. Peck and Ralph S. Pollock, eds. (Chicago:
American Bar Association Press, 1986). Reprinted in New York State Bar Association,
Law Studies, Spring/Summer 1987.
“The Birth of the Federal Court System,” with David Eisenberg, Christine Jordan, and Emily
Van Tassel, This Constitution, Winter, 1987. Reprinted in this Constitution: From
Ratification to the Bill of Rights (Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1988) and in Well Begun:
Chronicles of the Early National Period, Stephen L. Schechter and Richard B. Bernstein,
eds. (Albany, New York: 1989).
“Marbury v. Madison: John Marshall’s Selective Use of History,” with Susan Low Bloch,
University of Wisconsin Law Review (Number 2; 1986). Reprinted in Supreme Court
Historical Society, Yearbook, 1987.
“The Constitution and the Court,” with Christine Jordan, Manuscripts (Volume 39, 1987).
“Judges and Legislators in the New Federal System, 1789-1800,” with Emily Van Tassel, in
Judges and Legislators: Toward Institutional Comity, Robert A. Katzmann, ed. (The
Brookings Institution, 1988).
“Hayburn’s Case: A Misinterpretation of Precedent,” with Robert Teir, University of
Wisconsin Law Review (Number 4; 1988).
The Constitution and American Life, a special issue of the Journal of American History,
December, 1987, member of editorial advisory board with Hendrik Hartog and Harry
Scheiber; reprinted as book by Cornell University Press.
“Separation of Powers in the Early National Period,” William and Mary Law Review
(Volume 30, 1989).
“Poder Judiciário na Constituição dos Estados Unidos,” Revista de Direito Público (April-
June 1988).
“Judicial Power under the Constitution,” in Hogsta domsmakten i Sverige under 200 ar, Rolf
Nygren, ed. (Stockholm: 1990).
Origins of the Federal Judiciary: Essays on the Judiciary Act of 1789, Maeva Marcus, editor
and contributor, Oxford University Press, 1992.
“Louis D. Brandeis and the Laboratories of Democracy,” in Federalism and the Judicial
Mind, Harry Scheiber, ed., University of California, Berkeley (1992).
“The Adoption of the Bill of Rights,” William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (Volume 1,
Spring 1992).
“Suits Against States,” with Natalie Wexler, Journal of Supreme Court History, 1993.
“Judicial Review in the Early Republic,” in Launching the “Extended Republic”: The
Federalist Era, Ronald Hoffman, ed., University Press of Virginia (1997).3
“The Founding Fathers, Marbury vs Madison — And So What? in Constitutional Justice
under Old Constitutions, Eivind Smith, ed., Kluwer Law International, 1995.
“Documenting Judicial History: The Supreme Court of the United States, 1789-1800,”
Journal of Supreme Court History , 1996.
“Georgia v. Brailsford,” Journal of Supreme Court History, 1996.
“George Washington’s Appointments to the Supreme Court.” Journal of Supreme Court
History, 1999.
“Federalism to the Civil War,” in The New Federalism: Structures and Infrastructures,
American and European Perspectives, Kjell Ake Modéer, ed. (Sweden: FRN, 2000).
“Is the Supreme Court a Political Institution?” The George Washington Law Review, Vol.72,
number 1/2, December 2003.
“Will Youngstown Survive?” Duquesne Law Review, Vol. 41, number 4, summer 2003.
“Presidential Power in Times of Crisis: Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer (1952),” in
Creating Constitutional Change: Clashes over Power and Liberty in the Supreme Court,
Gregg Ivers and Kevin T. McGuire, eds. (University of Virginia Press, 2004).
“Federal Judicial Selection: The First Decade,” University of Richmond Law Review, Vol. 39,
number 3, March 2005.
“The Earliest Years (1790-1801): Laying Foundations,” in Christopher L. Tomlins, ed., The
United States Supreme Court: The Pursuit of Justice (Houghton Mifflin, 2005).
“John Marshall Was Not the First Chief Justice,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical
Society, Vol. 153, No. 1, March 2009.
Blackstone in America: Selected Essays of Kathryn Preyer, Mary Sarah Bilder, Maeva
Marcus, R. Kent Newmyer, eds. (Cambridge University Press, 2009).
“European Legal History–From an American Perspective,” in How to Teach European
Comparative Legal History, Kjell A. Modeer and Per Nilsen, eds., (Lund, Sweden, 2011).
“The Rise of Judicial Power before Marbury v. Madison,” Rechtsgeschichte (Zeitschrift des
Max-Planck-Instituts für europäische Rechtsgeschichte), Issue 19, September 2011.
“The Constitution’s Court,” William and Mary Quarterly, Vol. 69, April 2012.
“The Effect (or Non-Effect) of Founders on the Supreme Court Bench,” The George
Washington Law Review, Vol. 80, November 2012.
“Hybrid Appellate Courts in the Early Republic,” in Suum Cuique Tribuere (Kjell A. Modeer
and Martin Sunnquist, eds., (Stockholm, 2018).
“Wilson as a Justice,” The Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 17, number
1, winter 2019.4
With Liberty and Justice for All? The Constitution in the Classroom, Steven A.Steinbach,
Maeva Marcus, Robert Cohen, eds. (Oxford University Press, 2022).
ACTIVITIES: American Historical Association:
Member advisory board of AHA’s conference series on the teaching of the Constitution in
the schools, 1982-1984; member of the Littleton – Griswold Prize Committee (best
book in legal history published in current year), 1989-1990, chair, 1991; delivered
paper, “The Documentary Approach to Supreme Court History,” at AHA annual
meeting, December, 1989.
Organization of American Historians:
Member of the Pelzer Award Committee, 1979-1983; referee articles for the Journal of
American History; member of 1987 Program Committee; representative of the OAH to
the History Teaching Alliance Oversight Committee, 1985-1987; member (with
Gordon Wood, Harry Scheiber, and Hendrik Hartog) of the editorial advisory board for
the Bicentennial of the Constitution special issue of the Journal of American History;
chair and commentator at the session “Quarrels on the Supreme Court,” at the 1988
Annual Meeting; chair, Richard Leopold Prize Committee, 1988-1990; co-chair 1992
Program Committee; member, International Committee, 1992-2000; delivered paper,
“The State and the Judiciary.” at OAH annual meeting, April, 1997; recipient of the
OAH Distinguished Service Award, April, 2001. OAH Distinguished Lecturer, 2001-
American Society for Legal History:
President-elect. 2005-2007; President, 2007-2009
Board of Directors 1987-1990, 1996-1999, 2010-12; editorial board Law and History
Review, 1991-1994; publications committee, 1992-1995; committee on documentary
preservation; ACLS delegate, 2008-2012; Advisory Committee on Cromwell Prizes,
2009-2013; History of the Society Committee, 2011-; Projects and Proposals
Committee, 2009-2012.
Council for International Exchange of Scholars:
Member of Discipline Screening Committee for Fulbright Senior Scholar Awards in
American History, 1983-1986.
Georgetown University, Judicial Conference of the United States’ Committee on the
Bicentennial of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court Historical Society: Organized
bicentennial conference on the Judiciary Act of 1789 (funded by the National Endowment
for the Humanities) and presented paper at that conference with Natalie Wexler,
“‘Carrying Justice…to Every Man’s Door’: Commentaries on the Judiciary Act of 1789,”
September 21, 1989.
The Woodrow Wilson Center: Member (with fifteen other scholars in history, jurisprudence,
and philosophy) of workshop on bicentennial of the Bill of Rights, 1989-1991.
The Historical Society of the District of Columbia Circuit, Historian, 1990-present.
Sixth Judicial Circuit of the United States, Annual Conference: presented paper, “History of
the Adoption of the Bill of Rights,” June 13, 1991.5
International Conference of Law and Society, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: presented paper,
“The Bill of Rights in the Eighteenth Century,” June 27, 1991.
Judicial Conference of the United States, Bicentennial Conference on the Bill of Rights:
presented paper, “The Origin of the Bill of Rights,” October 21, 1991.
Federal Judicial Center, guest faculty, ethics and values seminar for federal judges,
“Decisions, Dilemmas, and Values: Problems of Justice in Contemporary Society.”
International Conference on Constitutional Justice under Old Constitutions, Oslo, Norway:
presented paper, “The Founding Fathers, Marbury v. Madison, and so what?” September
7, 1992.
American Council of Learned Societies: American Studies Academic Advisory Committee,
1993-1996; delegate for ASLH, 2007- 2012.
Supreme Court Historical Society: member, Board of Editors, Journal of Supreme Court
History, 1993-2004.
Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research, Conference on the New
Federalism, Stockholm, Sweden: presented paper, “Federalism to the Civil War,”
September 22, 1997.
Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, member 2001-2009.
Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands and The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the
University of Pennsylvania, The Institutions of Democracy, Commission on the Judicial
Branch member, 2003-2006.
Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference: presented paper “Marbury v. Madison,” June, 2003.
Cambridge University Press, co-editor of the series, Cambridge Studies on the American
Constitution.
American Philosophical Society: presented paper, “John Marshall Was Not the First Chief
Justice,” November 8, 2007.
Journal of American Constitutional History, editor, 2022-