Anthony E. Varona
Professor of Law
Director, S.J.D. Program
Office: Room 515H
Phone: 202-274-4196
E-mail: avarona@wcl.american.edu
Professor Varona teaches Contracts, Administrative Law, Media Law, and Introduction to Public Law, and serves as the faculty director of the S.J.D. Program. Before joining the WCL faculty, he was an associate professor of law at Pace Law School in New York. Before that, he served as general counsel and legal director for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay civil rights organization. He built HRC's legal department, directed its legislative, regulatory, and appellate amicus work, launched national law fellow and pro bono attorney programs, and served as counsel to HRC's board of directors and the organization's corporate, educational, and media initiatives.
Professor Varona taught as an adjunct law professor for three years at Georgetown University, and served as a Wasserstein Fellow at Harvard Law School. He serves on the board of directors of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), and is a member of the Society of American Law Teachers and the Hispanic Bar Association of Washington. He has served on the boards of the Human Rights Campaign and the Alliance for Justice, was on the New York Advisory Board for the American Constitution Society, was founding chairperson of the AIDS Action Council's Legal Advisory Board, and served as a member of the Judicial Selection Steering Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.
Professor Varona practiced communications law at the Washington offices of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP, and Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky & Popeo, PC. He began his legal career as an honors program attorney for the Federal Communications Commission.
Having earned his A.B. from Boston College, Professor Varona went on to earn a J.D. from Boston College Law School and an LL.M. from Georgetown University.
Professor Varona's scholarship has included articles concerning civil rights, employment discrimination, hate crimes, and communications law, published in law reviews associated with the College of William & Mary, the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota, and Catholic, Georgetown and Stanford Universities. He has lectured widely on these topics, and has appeared as a legal commentator on CNN, Headline News, Fox News Network, Court TV, MSNBC, and in a variety of major daily newspapers and legal periodicals.
Professor Varona serves on the Faculty Review Board of the Administrative Law Review, and as faculty advisor to the Latino/a Law Students Association (LaLSA) and The Modern American. He was named the Washington College of Law Professor of the Year for 2007, and was profiled by the National Law Journal in May 2000.
Currently Teaching
Degrees & Universities
- A.B., Boston College
- J.D., Boston College Law School
- LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
Selected Publications
- Anthony E. Varona, Toward a Broadband Public Interest Standard, 61 Admin. L. Rev. 1 (2009). SSRN Link
- Anthony E. Varona, Out of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis to Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation, 39 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 149 (2006). SSRN Link
- Anthony E. Varona, Changing Channels and Bridging Divides: The Failure and Redemption of American Broadcast Television Regulation, 6 Minn. J.L. Sci. & Tech. 1 (2004). SSRN Link
- Anthony E. Varona & Kevin Layton, Anchoring Justice: The Constitutionality of the Local Law Enforcement Enhancement Act in United States v. Morrison's Shifting Seas, 12 Stan. L. & Policy Rev. 9 (2001). SSRN Link
- Anthony E. Varona, Politics, Pragmatism and the Courts, 2 Geo. J. Gender & L. 155 (2001).
- Anthony E. Varona & Jeffrey Monks, En/Gendering Equality: Title VII Coverage of Sexual Orientation and Gender Nonconformity Discrimination, 7 Wm. & Mary J. Women L. 67 (2000). SSRN Link
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More Publications...
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- Anthony E. Varona, Protecting the Unpopular: Federalism and Free Speech Principles Demand Expansion of Hate Crimes Law, Legal Times 12 (July 5, 1999).
- Anthony E. Varona, Odering a Little Fair Play: Amendment Promises Equal Protection, Not Special Protection, for Gal Federal Workers, 153 N.J. L.J. 37 (July 6, 1998).
- Anthony E. Varona Holes in Same-Sex Harassment Decision, http://www.FoxNews.com (Mar. 10, 1998).
- Anthony E. Varona, Setting the Record Straight: The Effects of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act on the First and Fourteenth Amendment Rights of Gay and Lesbian Public Schoolteachers, 6 CommLaw 25 (1998).
- Anthony E. Varona, Regulation of Rates, in Telecommunications Regulation: Cable, Broadcasting, Satellite, and the Internet (Matthew Bender Mar. 1994).
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Selected Presentations
- Anthony E. Varona, Speech, Toward and Internet Public Interest Standard (Panel on Media Regulation, • American Association of Law Schools (AALS) 2008 Annual Meeting, Section on Telecommunications and the Internet, Race, Ethnicity, Language and Socio-Economics, N.Y.C., N.Y., Jan. 2008).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speaker, Panel on Integrating International Law Into First-year Curriculum (American University Washington College of Law International Law Week, Wash., D.C., Nov. 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel Moderator, Panel on Mdia Dversity and Pblic Iterest Communications Regulation (LatCrit XII (2007) National Scholarship Conference, Oct. 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Discussant, Internet Regulation And Media Diversity Research Roundtables (2007 National Media Law Reform Conference, Sponsored by Social Science Research Council, Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 12, 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Plenary Panelist & Breakout Group Discussion Facilitator, The Ratings Game (American Association of Law Schools 2007 Annual Meeting Workshop, Wash., D.C., Jan. 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Discussant, Internet Regulation and Media Diversity Research Roundtables (2007 National Media Reform Conference Scholarship Pre-Conference (sponsored by Social Science Research Council), Memphis, Tenn., Jan. 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Presentation, Toward an Internet Public Interest Standard (“Reclaiming the First Amendment: Constitutional Theories of Media Reform,” co-hosted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and Hofstra University, N.Y., Jan. 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Plenary Panelist, The Ratings Game (American Association of Law Schools 2007 Annual Meeting Workshop, Jan. 2007).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Out of Thin Air: Media Regulation in an Era of Technological Convergence” and “Who Decides? The Role of Courts in the Struggle for LGBT Equality (American U., Wash. Coll. of Law Spring 2006 Program on Law and Government Panel Discussions, Spring 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, 9th Annual Hispanic Law Conference Experts Panel (Washington, DC, March 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Current State of Healthcare Regulation (Administrative Law Review 2006 Symposium on Healthcare Regulation, 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Current State of Healthcare Regulation (Administrative Law Review 2006 Symposium on Healthcare Regualtion, 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Faculty-Student Dialog on Hurrican Katrina (Mid-Atlantic People of Color Scholarship Conference, Washington, D.C., 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, The Modern American 2006 Symposium on Diversity Law (American U., Wash. Coll. of Law, 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speech, Workshop on Preparing for Law School (American Bar Association (ABA) Council on Legal Educational Opportunity 2006 Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program, 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Faculty-Student Dialogue on Hurricane Katrina (2006 Mid-Atlantic People of Color Scholarship Conference, 2006).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Latino/a Legal Identity Panel (National Latino/a Law Students Association 2005 National Conference, 2005).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, First-Year Student Workshop (National Latino/a Law Students Association 2005 National Conference, 2005).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, 2005 Workshop for New Law Teachers (Association of American Law Schools, 2005).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Panel (2005 First Annual National Campus Progress Conference, 2005).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel/Debate, Same-Sex Marriage (Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) 2005 Annual Conference, 2005).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speech, Out of Thin Air: Using First Amendment Public Forum Analysis to Redeem American Broadcasting Regulation (University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 2005 Media Regulation Symposium, Ann Arbor, Mich., 2005).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speech, Exhibition on Connecticut & Yale Lesbian and Gay History (Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 2004).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Entering Legal Academia (Hispanic National Bar Association 2004 National Conference, 2004).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Discussion on Lawrence v. Texas (Seton Hall University School of Law, S. Orange, N.J., 2004).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Lawrence v. Texas and Same-Sex Marriage (American Constitution Society, First Annual National Conference, 2003).
- Anthony E. Varona, Debate, ACS v. Federalist Society Debate on Lawrence v. Texas (Cardozo Law School, N.Y.C., N.Y., 2003).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Workshop for New Law Teachers (Association of American Law Schools (AALS), 2003).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speech, Symposium on Gay Civil Rights (Ohio State University College of Law, Columbus, Ohio, 2002).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speech, Summer Institute Featured Speaker (Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Summer 2001).
- Anthony E. Varona, Speaker, Public Interest Law Panel (Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass., 2001).
- Anthony E. Varona, Lecture, Guest Lecturer to Professor David Westfall's 1L Section (Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Mass., 2001).
- Anthony E. Varona, Panel, Marriage and Domestic Partnership Law Panel (Boston College Law School, Bos., Mass., 2001).
- Anthony E. Varona, Lecture, Annual Human Rights Lecture (University of Toledo College of Law, Toledo, Ohio, 2000).
- Anthony E. Varona, Lecture, Gender Nonconformity Law Symposium (William and Mary School of Law, Williamsburg, Va., 2000).
- Anthony E. Varona, Debate, Debate Against Former Deputy Solicitor General Roger Clegg (University of Houston Law Center, Houston, Tex., Mar. 1999).
- Anthony E. Varona, Lecture, Gender and the Law Symposium (Cornell Law School, Ithaca, N.Y., 1999).