ABA to Honor Professor Stephen Wermiel with 2018 Robert F. Drinan Award for Distinguished Service
Jan. 9, 2018
American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) congratulates Professor Stephen Wermiel, who is being honored by the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice with the 2018 Robert F. Drinan Award for Distinguished Service.
The award, named in honor of the late Father Robert F. Drinan, a former member of Congress who chaired the Section in 1990-91, recognizes individuals whose sustained and extraordinary commitment to the Section has advanced its mission of providing leadership to the legal profession in protecting and advancing human rights, civil liberties, and social justice.
Wermiel holds expertise in the U.S. Supreme Court, having covered the court for the Wall Street Journal from 1979 until 1991. At AUWCL, he teaches constitutional law, the First Amendment, and a seminar on the workings of the Supreme Court.
“Steve’s involvement in AUWCL’s public interest activities and programs – from previously directing the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, to his perennial participation in the “In My Backyard” day of public service, to chairing the Public Interest/Public Service Scholars (PIPS) scholars selection committee – are well known to our community,” said Dean Camille A. Nelson “We are thrilled that he is receiving this well-deserved recognition from the American Bar Association Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, which he chaired in 2013-2014.”
The Drinan Award will be presented to Wermiel at a reception on Friday, Feb. 2, 2018, during the ABA Midyear Meeting.
From the release:
Stephen J. Wermiel is a Professor of Practice in Constitutional Law and part of the Program on Law and Government at American University Washington College of Law. He is past chair of the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice (CRSJ) (formerly Individual Rights and Responsibilities) and author of a monthly column on SCOTUSblog aimed at explaining the Supreme Court to law students. He is co-author of Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion, the definitive biography of the late Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in hardcover 2010 and by University Press of Kansas in paperback in 2013. He is also co-author of The Progeny: Justice William J. Brennan’s Fight to Preserve the Legacy of New York Times v. Sullivan, published by ABA Publishing in 2014. At the Washington College of Law, he serves as an adviser to and was past associate director of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, in which Washington College of Law students teach constitutional law in the public high schools of Washington, D.C. He also is faculty adviser to the Moot Court Honor Society and serves on the advisory boards of the Administrative Law Review and the Journal of Gender, Social Policy and Law.
In the ABA, Prof. Wermiel serves as Chair of CRSJ's Publications Committee and as Co-chair of its First Amendment Rights Committee. He also is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on the Silver Gavel Awards, and serves on the editorial boards of CRSJ’s Human Rights Magazine and the ABA Forum on Communications Law’s Communications Lawyer Magazine.
Read the full release.
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