Featured Faculty: William Kelley
After serving for two years as deputy counsel to President George W. Bush, it’s not surprising that Professor William Kelley came back to Notre Dame with a few tales to tell. Among his more interesting duties was to review the records of potential nominees for the U.S. Supreme Court, recommend candidates to the President, and help shepherd two—John G. Roberts and Samuel Alito—through the Senate confirmation process.
Says Kelley, who teaches classes in administrative and constitutional law, “I have to avoid the syndrome of telling war stories, but I do think that my experience in government has made the course that I just taught much deeper and better. My approach in teaching administrative law is to focus on the interactions within the executive branch and between the President and Congress. Events in the real world are actually very relevant to the substance of what students should be learning.”
A graduate of Harvard Law School (where he served as the Supreme Court editor for the Harvard Law Review), Kelley began his legal career as a clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia. His background makes him an astute observer of the nation’s highest court. Assessing the contributions of its two newest members, Kelley says, “both the Chief Justice and Justice Alito have shown themselves to be very careful judges who are devoted to figuring out exactly what the law is and not what their policy preferences are. They both have shown that they believe the judicial role should be modest. They’re not interested in big, splashy decisions but instead in resolving the cases in front of them.”
“As a doctrinal matter,” he adds, “the most significant thing I see from this court—which might be slightly different from the Rehnquist court—is a pretty careful focus on the distinction between facial and as-applied constitutional challenges, and a reluctance to reach broad constitutional decisions when a narrow one will do.”
Kelley is not the only Law School faculty member who brings real-world experience to the classroom. Professor Jimmy Gurulé, an expert on international terrorism, held senior positions in the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments. Colleague Kenneth Ripple is a sitting judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Professor Paolo Carozza is the current chairman of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. And the list goes on.
“Public service is an important calling,” says Kelley. “I think it has enriched our teaching immensely.”
To learn more about William Kelley, visit his faculty profile page.
