Scott Michelman

Scott Michelman is Legal Director of the ACLU of the District of Columbia and has been teaching Civil Rights Litigation as an adjunct professor at Harvard Law School since 2015. He has also held adjunct teaching positions at American University Washington College of Law, Santa Clara Law School, and the University of California at Santa Cruz, and has guest-lectured at Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, and UC Berkeley School of Law.

• Harvard Law School, J.D., magna cum laude, 2004
• Duke University, A.B., Political Science, magna cum laude, 2000

Michelman's research and teaching focus on civil rights enforcement, constitutional litigation, and public interest law. His work explores the mechanisms by which civil rights are enforced through private litigation, with particular attention to doctrines such as qualified immunity, standing, municipal liability, and the role of federal courts in constitutional enforcement. He is deeply engaged in impact litigation and the strategic use of law to advance social justice.

His recent publications include the textbook Civil Rights Enforcement (2nd ed., 2023), which is widely used in law schools and praised for its depth and practical focus. His scholarship also includes articles on qualified immunity, sentencing law, and surveillance. The articles demonstrate a consistent focus on the intersection of doctrine and social justice, particularly in the context of policing, prisoners' rights, and constitutional enforcement.

Michelman has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest courts of D.C. and Massachusetts, and seven federal courts of appeals. His commentary has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, SCOTUSblog, Slate, and the Huffington Post, and he has been quoted in major media outlets including The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN.

He is a former law clerk to Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, a William J. Brennan First Amendment Fellow at the ACLU, and a clinical teaching fellow at Seton Hall Law School. He has also designed and taught courses on American politics at Eton College.