Richard Primus
{{Short description|American legal scholar (born 1969)}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Richard A. Primus
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1969}}
| birth_place =
| death_date =
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| nationality = American
| discipline = Constitutional law
| workplaces = University of Michigan
| alma_mater = Harvard University (AB)
Balliol College, Oxford (DPhil)
Yale Law School (JD)
| spouse = {{Marriage|Eve Lynn Brensike|2007}}
| awards = Guggenheim Fellowship (2008)
| relatives = Sigmund Strochlitz (maternal grandfather)
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2020}}
Richard Abraham Primus (born 1969) is an American legal scholar. He currently teaches United States constitutional law at the University of Michigan Law School, where he is Theodore J. St. Antoine Collegiate Professor of Law.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Primus, Richard|url=https://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=raprimus|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-20|website=University of Michigan Law School|language=en-US}} In 2008, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on the relationship between history and constitutional interpretation.{{cite web|url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/richard-primus/|title=Richard Primus|publisher=John Simon Guggenheim Foundation|access-date=December 9, 2019}}
Education and career
Primus graduated from Harvard College with an A.B., summa cum laude, in social studies. He then earned a Doctor of Philosophy in politics at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar and the Jowett Senior Scholar. After studying law at Yale Law School, Primus clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.{{cite web|url=https://www.law.umich.edu/FacultyBio/Pages/FacultyBio.aspx?FacID=raprimus|title=Primus, Richard|publisher=University of Michigan Law School|access-date=December 9, 2019}}
Primus then practiced law at the Washington, D.C. office of Jenner & Block before joining the Michigan Law School faculty in 2001. He has taught as a visiting professor at Columbia Law School, New York University School of Law, and the University of Tokyo. Primus currently teaches Introduction to Constitutional Law and Constitutional Theory at the University of Michigan.
His maternal grandfather, Sigmund Strochlitz (1916–2006), was a Holocaust survivor and confidant of Elie Wiesel.{{cite news|author=Martin, Douglas|title=Sigmund Strochlitz, 89, Leader in Holocaust Causes, Dies|work=The New York Times|date=October 21, 2006|page=B7}} Primus has been married to Eve Brensike, who is also a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law, since 2007.{{cite news|title=Eve Brensike, Richard Primus|date=May 6, 2007|work=New York Times|page=ST21}}
Publications
- {{Cite book|last1=Primus|first1=Richard A.|title=The American Language of Rights|date=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-65250-6|doi=10.1017/cbo9780511490699}}Reviews of The American Language of Rights:
- {{Cite journal|last1=Brett|first1=Annabel|date=2001|title=none|journal=History of Political Thought|volume=22|issue=3|pages=535–537|issn=0143-781X|jstor=26219803}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Gillman|first=Howard|author-link=Howard Gillman|date=September 2000|title=none|journal=American Political Science Review|language=en|volume=94|issue=3|pages=712–713|doi=10.2307/2585853|jstor=2585853|s2cid=151876104|issn=0003-0554}}
- Primus, Richard A. (2025). The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power. Harvard University Press, forthcoming June 3, 2025.
See also
References
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Category:American legal scholars
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Category:American Rhodes Scholars
Category:Yale Law School alumni
Category:Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Category:University of Michigan faculty
Category:University of Michigan Law School faculty
Category:People associated with Jenner & Block
Category:Academic staff of the University of Tokyo
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