Biography

Thomas P. Schmidt is a Visiting Fellow at EUI in the Department of Law and an Associate Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. He teaches and writes about U.S. constitutional law, history, and theory; federal courts; civil procedure; and the history of legal thought. His scholarship has explored presidential immunity, the development of standing doctrine, discretion in Supreme Court decision-making, the role of lower federal courts in public law litigation, and the processes of constitutional change.

Before joining Columbia, Schmidt practiced law for over six years, specializing in U.S. Supreme Court and appellate litigation. He worked on a number of landmark cases, including Trump v. Hawaii—the challenge to President Donald Trump’s travel ban. He has a B.A. in Classics (Greek) from Yale and an M.Phil. in Classics from the University of Cambridge. After receiving a J.D. from Yale Law School, Schmidt clerked for then-Judge Merrick Garland on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court.

Fields of expertise