Dean Gerald S. Dickinson
(Distinguished Professor/Endowed Chair)

University of Pittsburgh School of Law

Law

constitutional law

About Me

Professor Dickinson's teaching and scholarship specializes in constitutional law, civil rights, property, and race and the law. His scholarship has featured in numerous respected law reviews and has been cited by U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Third and Sixth Circuits, in amicus briefs filed by Former Members of Congress in federal courts, and his scholarly work as a Fulbright Scholar has been cited by the High Court of South Africa.

Prior to joining the academy, Professor Dickinson served as a law clerk for the Honorable Theodore A. McKee, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. He practiced law at Reed Smith LLP in Pittsburgh. Professor Dickinson is a former Fulbright Scholar to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he studied comparative constitutional law and housing with faculty at the University of Witswatersrand School of Law and worked as a human rights activist organizing and representing squatters in eviction proceedings with lawyers at the University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies.

Professor Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the leading experts on congressional and executive powers. In 2017, he was invited to submit written testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs regarding executive orders and congressional conflicts over the US-Mexico border wall dispute. Professor Dickinson published numerous op-eds in national outlets addressing the legality of the US-Mexico border wall and has been invited to join national and international scholars at conferences to address the legal implications of national emergency declarations.

Professor Dickinson has frequently appeared in national and international news outlets, such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, US Today, Rolling Stone, Roll Call, Boston Globe, Austin American-Statesman, Washington Examiner, Bloomberg, BBC-News, BBC-UK, The Hill, The Atlantic, and MSNBC. He also regularly appears on local television and radio stations, such as WTAE, KDKA, WPXI, and WESA, and in local print outlets such as the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and City Paper.

Publications

Gerald S. Dickinson, “Towards a New Eviction Jurisprudence,” 23 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol'y 1, (2016).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Intratextual and Intradoctrinal Dimensions of the Constitutional Home,” 15 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol’y 291-321, (2020).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “State Constitutional General Welfare Doctrine,” 40 Cardozo L. Rev. 2943, (2019).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Federalism, Convergence and Divergence in Constitutional Property,” 73 U. Miami L. Rev. 139, (2018).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “The Puzzle of the Constitutional Home,” 80 Ohio St. L.J. 1099, (2019).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Landowners' FCC Dilemma: Rereading the Supreme Court's Armstrong Opinion After the Third Circuit's DePolo Ruling,” 11 N.Y.U. J.L. & Liberty 218, (2017).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Judicial Federalization Doctrine,” 75 Baylor L. Rev. 85, (2023).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “The Federalization Dimension of Takings,” 100 Denv L. Rev. 681, (2023).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Fourth Amendment’s Constitutional Home,” 31 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. 1063, (2023).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Revisiting Rucho's Dissent: Summoning the Supreme Court to Follow the State Courts,” 99 N.Y.U L. Rev. 344, (2024).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Judicial Laboratories,” 27 U. Pa. J. Const. L. __, (2025).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Takings Doctrinalization,” 81 Wash. & Lee L. Rev. __, (2025).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “Reconciling Brandeisian and Brennanian Laboratories,” 87 Alb. L. Rev. 941, (2024).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “The New Laboratories of Democracy,” 1 Fordham L. Voting Rts. & Democracy F. 261, (2023).
Gerald S. Dickinson, “A Theory of Federalization Doctrine,” 128 Dick. L. Rev. 75, (2023).

Recent Conversations

You have not asked, answered, or commented on any questions.