Legislative Process, Fifth Edition

Abner Mikva

Abner J. Mikva is Senior Director and Visiting Professor at the Edwin F. Mandel Legal Aid Clinic of the University of Chicago. He also engages in arbitration and mediation work with JAMS, a national dispute resolution firm. He served as White House Counsel from October 1, 1994 until November 1, 1995. Prior to his appointment, he served as Chief Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He was appointed to the bench on September 27, 1979, and became Chief Judge on January 21, 1991.
Judge Mikva received his law degree from the University of Chicago in 1951, graduating cum laude. He was editor-in-chief of the Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif, the national legal honor society. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Sherman Minton. After his clerkship, he returned to Illinois, where he entered the practice of law, becoming a partner of the late Justice Arthur Goldberg. His practice included extensive litigation and appellate work. He presented several constitutional cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Judge taught courses at Northwestern University Law School, Duke University Law, Georgetown Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law, American University Law, the University of Chicago Law and the University of Illinois Law. He is the co-author of a political science text, The American Congress: The First Branch, and co-authored law school textbooks on the legislative process. He is a recipient of numerous honorary degrees. He was given the Paul H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award through the University of Illinois and the Alumni Medal of the University of Chicago. He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a founding member and serves on the Advisory Board of the American Constitution Society, which now has student chapters on over 150 law school campuses and lawyer chapters in numerous cities.

Michael Gerhardt

Education
J.D., University of Chicago
M.S., London School of Economics and Political Science
B.A., Yale University

Background
Michael Gerhardt is Samuel Ashe Distinguished Professor of Constitutional Law and Director of the UNC Center on Law and Government. He specializes in constitutional conflicts and has written five books, including The Power of Precedent (paperback, Oxford University Press, 2011). The Financial Times selected his most recent book, The Forgotten Presidents: Their Untold Constitutional Legacy (Oxford University Press, 2013), as one of its Best Books of 2013. Professor Gerhardt is also co-editor (with Eric Lane and former Judge Abner Mikva) of the Fourth Edition of the casebook The Legislative Process, published by Aspen Law and Business.

Professor Gerhardt has advised congressional leaders and White House officials on numerous constitutional issues, including judicial nominations, recess appointments, impeachment, and the filibuster. In 1992-93, he wrote the judicial selection policy for President Clinton's transition, and in 1998 he was the only joint witness in the House Judiciary Committee's historic hearing on the background and history of impeachment held in conjunction with its consideration of the impeachment of President Clinton. In 2003 and 2005, he advised both Senate leaders and the Democratic Policy Committee on the constitutionality of the filibuster.

He has participated in Supreme Court confirmation hearings for five of the nine justices currently sitting on the Supreme Court. He served as Special Counsel assisting the Clinton White House on Justice Stephen Breyer's confirmation hearings. In 2005, he advised several senators on President Bush's nomination of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States and testified as an expert witness in the confirmation hearings for Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. In 2009-2010, Professor Gerhardt served as Special Counsel to Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the Senate Judiciary Committee for the nominations of Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan to the the U.S. Supreme Court.

His honors include distinguished lectures at several law schools and universities, including Princeton University. Professor Gerhardt has twice received UNC Law School's Van Hecke-Wettach Award, given every two years in recognition of an outstanding book written by a faculty member. In 2004, he was a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program in American Institutions and Ideals at Princeton University. He has previously served as Dean of Case Western Reserve Law School, taught at Wake Forest and William & Mary Law Schools, and been a visiting professor at Cornell and Duke Law Schools. In 2010 and 2013, Professor Gerhardt served as a fellow in the academic and leadership programs, respectively, at the Institute for Arts and the Humanities at the University of North Car

Eric Lane

Professor Lane is the Eric J. Schmertz Distinguished Professor of Public Law and Public Service at Hofstra University School of Law. He is the co-author with Michael Oreskes, managing editor for U.S. news for the Associated Press, of The Genius of America: How the Constitution Saved the Country and Why It Can Again and two additional books with the Honorable Abner J. Mikva, The Legislative Process and An Introduction to Statutory Interpretation and Legislative Process. Both are law school texts. He is also the author of a number of articles on governmental decision-making.

Presently, Professor Lane is the Senior Fellow at the Brennan Center of Justice and the NYU School of Law. Through 2005 he served as special counsel to the speaker of the New York City Council. Professor Lane has also served as a consultant for the Justice Project of the Center for Court Innovation. From July 1993 to February 1995 he served as counsel to the New York State Temporary Commission on Constitutional Revision.
He serves on the boards of the Vera Institute of Justice, The Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem, and the Council on the Environment of New York City. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Foundation.