Andrew Kent

Andrew Kent teaches and writes about constitutional law, federal courts and procedure, national security and foreign relations law, and legal ethics. His work—covering topics such as presidential power, U.S colonial governance, the extraterritoriality of the U.S. Constitution, the legal history of the Civil War, and remedies for constitutional torts—has been published leading journals including the Harvard Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, the Journal of American Constitutional History, and the American Journal of Legal History.

After graduating from Yale Law School, Professor Kent clerked for the Hon. Robert A. Katzmann of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the Hon. Carol B. Amon of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Before joining Fordham’s faculty, he was a Climenko Fellow at Harvard Law School and an attorney at both Sullivan & Cromwell and WilmerHale. While in private practice, Kent had a significant pro bono practice, which included freeing an innocent man who had been wrongfully convicted of murder. He continues his pro bono work as a law professor.

From 2014-2015, Professor Kent served as Senior Counsel to the Solicitor General, State of New York, Office of the Attorney General.

Kent is a member of the Attorney Grievance Committee for the First Judicial Department of New York, a Fellow at Fordham Law’s Stein Center on Law and Ethics, a Contributing Editor at Lawfare, an editor of the Journal of American Constitutional History, and served for a number of years on the New York City Bar’s Committee on Professional Responsibility.

Congressional testimony: On the Discussion Draft of Bill “Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA)” and Examining the Constitutional Role of the Pardon Power

Education

• JD, Yale Law School
• AB, Harvard College

Representative Publications  

Executive Power, the Royal Prerogative, and the Founders’ Presidency, 2 Journal of American Constitutional History 403 (2024)

Lessons for Today’s Bivens and Qualified Immunity Debates from Nineteenth Century Officer Tort Litigation, 96 Notre Dame Law Review 1755 (2021)

Fiduciary Law and the Law of Public Office, 62 William & Mary Law Review 1297 (2021) (with Ethan Leib)

Hernandez v. Mesa: Questions Answered and Questions Avoided, American Constitution Society Annual Supreme Court Review, 2019-20 Term, at 189

May Class Counsel Also Represent Lead Plaintiffs?, 72 Florida Law Review 1083 (2020) (with Bruce A. Green)

Faithful Execution and Article II, 321 Harvard Law Review 2111 (2019) (with Ethan Leib and Jed Shugerman)

Congress and Federal Law Enforcement Independence, 52 University of California at Davis Law Review 1927 (2019)

Piracy and Due Process, 39 Michigan Journal of International Law 385 (2018)

The Jury and Empire: The Insular Cases and the Anti-Jury Movement in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, 91 Southern California Law Review 375 (2018)

Executive Power and National Security Power (with Julian D. Mortensen), in The Cambridge Companion to the United States Constitution, edited by J.W. Compton and K. Orren, Cambridge University Press (2018)

The Rebel Soldier Who Became Chief Justice of the United States: The Civil War and its Legacy for Edward Douglass White of Louisiana, 56 American Journal of Legal History 209 (2016).

Disappearing Legal Black Holes and Converging Domains: Changing Individual Rights Protection in National Security and Foreign Affairs, 115 Columbia Law Review 1029 (2015)

Are Damages Different?: Bivens and National Security, 87 Southern California Law Review 1123 (2014)

The New Originalism and the Foreign Affairs Constitution, 82 Fordham Law Review 757 (2013) (symposium contribution)

Judicial Review for Enemy Fighters: The Court’s Fateful Turn in Ex parte Quirin, the Nazi Saboteur Case, 66 Vanderbilt Law Review 153 (2013)

Boumediene, Munaf and the Court's Misreading of the Insular Cases, 97 Iowa Law Review 101 (2011)

The Constitution and the Laws of War During the Civil War, 85 Notre Dame Law Review (2010)

A Textual and Historical Case Against a Global Constitution, 95 Georgetown Law Journal 463 (2007)

Congress’s Under-Appreciated Power to Define and Punish Offenses Against the Law of Nations, 85 Texas Law Review 843 (2007)

• Federal Courts
• Constitutional Law
• Foreign Relations Law
• National Security Law
• Advanced Seminar on National Security and Foreign Relations Law
• Professional Responsibility
• The Law of the Presidency
• Civil Procedure