Evan Bernick

Office: Swen Parson 197C

Email: ebernick@niu.edu

About

Evan Bernick joined the NIU Law faculty in 2021. He teaches courses in constitutional law, criminal law, criminal procedure, administrative law and legislation.

From 2020 to 2021, Bernick was a visiting professor at the Georgetown University Law Center and executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. He previously served as a clerk to Judge Diane S. Sykes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. From April 2017 to April 2019, he was a visiting lecturer at Georgetown and a resident fellow of the Center for the Constitution.

His scholarship covers constitutional law, philosophy of law, social movements, and law enforcement. He has published with the Georgetown Law Journal, Notre Dame Law Review, William and Mary Law Review, and George Mason Law Review. His book, The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit (2021), with Randy E. Barnett, was published by Harvard University Press under its Belknap imprint.

Bernick earned his B.A. in philosophy, with honors, from the University of Chicago in 2008, and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 2011.

Areas of Expertise

• Administrative law
• Constitutional law
• Constitutional theory
• Criminal law
• Criminal procedure
• Law enforcement/policing
• Legislation
• Philosophy of law

Books

• The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment: Its Letter and Spirit (with Randy E. Barnett) (Harvard University Press, 2021)

Articles

• Critical Legal Studies, Again? Again and Again!, 38 Const. Comment. 69 (2024) (reviewing Louis Michael Seidman, From Parchment to Dust: The Case for Constitutional Skepticism)
• Movement Administrative Procedure, 98 Notre Dame Law Review 2177 (2023)
• What is the Object of the Constitutional Oath?, 128 Penn St. L. Rev. 1 (2023) (with Christopher R. Green)
• There Is Something that Our Constitution Just Is, 27 Tex. Rev. L. & Pol. 247 (2023) (with Christopher R. Green)
• Equal Protection Against Policing, 25 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 1154 (2023)
• Jane Crow Constitutionalism, 43 N. Ill. U. L. Rev. 300 (2023)
• Fourteenth Amendment Confrontation, 51 Hofstra L. Rev. 1 (2022)
• Vindicating Cassandra: A Comment on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., Cato Sup. Ct. Rev. (2022)
• Eliminating Constitutional Law, 67 S.D. L. Rev. 1 (2022)
• Antisubjugation and the Equal Protection of the Laws, 110 Geo. L.J. 1 (2021)
• The Morality of the Presidential Oath, 47 Ohio N.U. L. Rev. 33 (2021)
• Substantive Due Process for Justice Thomas, 26 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 1087 (2020)
• The Privileges or Immunities Clause, Abridged: A Critique of Kurt Lash on the Fourteenth Amendment (with Randy E. Barnett), 95 Notre Dame L. Rev. 499 (2020)
• Faithful Execution: Where Administrative Law Meets the Constitution, 108 Geo. L.J. 1 (2019)
• No Arbitrary Power: An Originalist Theory of the Due Process of Law (with Randy E. Barnett), 60 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1599 (2019)
• Envisioning Administrative Procedure Act Originalism, 70 Admin. L. Rev. 807 (2018)
• The Letter and the Spirit: A Unified Theory of Originalism (with Randy E. Barnett), 107 Geo. L.J. 1 (2018)
• Is Judicial Deference to Agency Fact-Finding Unlawful?, 16 Geo. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y 27 (2018)
• Reason’s Republic, 10 N.Y.U. J.L. & Liberty 522 (2016)
• Towards a Consistent Economic Liberty Jurisprudence, 23 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 479 (2016)