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IU McKinney Professor Gerard Magliocca has been named a Distinguished Professor by Indiana University. It is the most prestigious appointment offered to honor faculty whose outstanding scholarship, artistic or literary distinction or other achievement have won significant recognition.

“The Distinguished Professorship is an honor that I plan to use for the benefit of the law school for many years to come,” Professor Magliocca said. “I am so grateful to my colleagues and my students for making this possible.”

Professor Magliocca, the Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law at IU McKinney, is recognized as the world’s leading voice on the original meaning and application of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. With a substantial publication record and numerous citations, which include five books and 30 articles across leading law reviews, Magliocca is known as one of the most original and productive scholars of his generation because of his insights into the relationship between law, history and political science.

“Professor Magliocca is richly deserving of the status of Indiana University Distinguished Professor,” said IU McKinney Dean Karen E. Bravo. “His deeply researched and scholarly work meaningfully impacts law and policy in real time, including two contemporary political issues – insurrection and the debt crisis.  In both cases, the national debate invoked arguments Professor Magliocca first and comprehensively articulated in his scholarship.  In addition, Professor Magliocca always answers the call to serve the work of the law school and is an outstanding institutional citizen.”

Professor Magliocca’s research into the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which produced his biography of amendment drafter John Bingham, laid the foundation for his 2021 article Amnesty and Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. This article, drafted before the January 6, 2021, events at the U.S. Capitol, is the foundational document informing the national understanding of former President Trump’s eligibility to hold national office in the future.

Serving as an expert at an April 22, 2022, administrative hearing on the candidacy of Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene for reelection to the U.S. Congress, broadcast on C-SPAN, Professor Magliocca explained the history and meaning of the “engage in insurrection or rebellion” language from the amendment. He was also engaged on a pro bono basis to testify in federal court action against the candidacy of North Carolina Representative Madison Cawthorn.

Professor Magliocca’s explanations of his research on the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution have appeared in well-known national and international media sources. On January 11, 2021, Professor Magliocca co-wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post titled “Impeachment won’t keep Trump from running again. Here’s a better way,” which drew on his Fourteenth Amendment research, including Amnesty and Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment, to argue that the soon-to-be former president may be ineligible to run again for federal office, including the presidency. In a subsequent Washington Post op-ed, “Criminal prosecution is the wrong idea. Use the 14th Amendment on Trump,” Professors Magliocca again applied this constitutional historical research, in this case into the purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment to stop Jefferson Davis, the president of the confederacy, from holding office, to the circumstance of the former President. In a January 2022 Washington Post Perspective, “The suit to bar Madison Cawthorn from running could help the Jan. 6 committee,” Professor Magliocca used his research as a backdrop to explaining the different issues in the suit against Representative Cawthorn. Also in 2022, Professor Magliocca spoke on All Things Considered about Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment and its relevance to elected officials involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, events.

Throughout these media contributions and official proceedings, Professor Magliocca applied the lens of a scholar of law, history, and the Constitution, with no “axe to grind” on questions of merit, morality, or fitness for office. Despite writing the foundational piece in what has become a political cause celebre, it is difficult in reading Magliocca’s words to divine his own political views.

Professor Magliocca is a Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law at IU McKinney and a nationally known expert in constitutional law. He is the author of five books, the latest of which, Washington’s Heir: The Life of Bushrod Washington, was published by Oxford University Press in early 2022. He also is the author of over 30 articles on constitutional law and intellectual property.