The Supreme Court Sourcebook

Richard Seamon

Professor Seamon joined the University of Idaho in 2004, having previously taught at the University of South Carolina School of Law and Washington and Lee Law School. He teaches Administrative Law, Constitutional Law, and Federal Courts. He also served as the associate dean for administration and students from 2006-2009.

Before he became a law professor, Professor Seamon practiced law for about ten years. In 1986, he clerked for Kenneth W. Starr on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Later, he worked as an associate at the Washington, D.C. law firm Covington & Burling, and he served in the U.S. Department of Justice as an assistant to the Solicitor General of the United States. While at the Justice Department, Professor Seamon presented oral argument before the U.S. Supreme Court in fifteen cases.

Professor Seamon has written two books on administrative law and many law review articles on issues of constitutional law and other public law subjects.

Professor Seamon received his J.D. from Duke Law School and holds a B.A. and an M.A. from Johns Hopkins University. He graduated from law school as a member of Order of the Coif and from college as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He is also an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Joseph Thai

Professor Joseph Thai joined the law faculty in 2003. He teaches Supreme Court decision making, First Amendment, criminal procedure, and criminal law. Thai has served as law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Byron White of the Supreme Court, as well as Judge David Ebel of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prior to joining the law faculty, Thai practiced in the Office of the Attorney General in Massachusetts and GableGotwals in Oklahoma. He currently engages in pro bono litigation on constitutional matters.

Thai frequently comments in local and national media on constitutional law and the Supreme Court. He also co-created and runs Crimprof Multipedia (opens in new window), an online multimedia teaching resource for criminal law and procedure professors worldwide.

In 2005, and again in 2008, Thai was named the outstanding faculty member of the College of Law by its students. In 2005, Thai was also named the university-wide outstanding faculty member by students across campus. In 2007, he received the President's Associates Presidential Professorship.

Kathryn Watts

Professor Kathryn A. Watts, who joined the faculty in 2007, teaches administrative law, constitutional law and Supreme Court decision making. She currently serves as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, and she was recently selected to serve as the Garvey Schubert Barer Professor of Law. Her scholarship has been published in a variety of top journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review, the Duke Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review and the Northwestern University Law Review. In addition, she is a two-time recipient of the Philip A. Trautman Professor of the Year Award given by the student body.

Professor Watts earned her J.D., summa cum laude, from Northwestern University School of Law, where she earned the John Paul Stevens Prize for Academic Excellence for graduating first in her class and the Raoul Berger Prize for her senior research paper on the history of general rulemaking grants. Professor Watts clerked for Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Professor Watts' research focuses on the interaction between federal courts and other governmental actors, with a particular emphasis on interaction between the judiciary and administrative agencies. She also writes about U.S. Supreme Court decision making.

Andrew Siegel

Professor Andrew Siegel is a tenured Associate Professor at the Seattle University School of Law. He joined the law school in the fall of 2007, after five years teaching at the University of South Carolina School of Law. Before entering the legal academy, Professor Siegel served as a law clerk to Judge Pierre N. Leval of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Justice John Paul Stevens of the United States Supreme Court and practiced as a litigation associate in the New York office of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering.

Professor Siegel graduated summa cum laude from Yale College, has a master's degree in history from Princeton University, and graduated summa cum laude and first in his class from New York University School of Law, where he was also an Executive Editor of the New York University Law Review.