Christopher W. Schmidt

Assistant Professor of Law

Professor Schmidt earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School, a Ph.D. in the history of American civilization and an M.A. in history from Harvard University, and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. While in law school, he served as executive articles editor for the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review.

His current book project, titled Creating Brown v. Board of Education: Law, Ideology, and Constitutional Change, 1941-2007, examines the political and intellectual context behind the Supreme Court's landmark 1954 school desegregation decision and efforts of subsequent generations to redefine Brown's meaning and significance. He is also working on articles on topics that include the constitutional consequences of the student lunch counter sit-in movement of 1960, the Tea Party as a constitutional movement, and the role of government in the development of Major League Baseball.

In fall 2011, Professor Schmidt began a three-year appointment as a faculty fellow at the American Bar Foundation. He is also an associate editor of Law & Social Inquiry. He has taught history at Dartmouth College and Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. He has received fellowships from the American Society for Legal History, the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, and the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard.

Professor Schmidt joined the IIT Chicago-Kent faculty in 2008. He teaches in the areas of constitutional law, legal history, comparative constitutional law, local government law, and sports law.