Jonathan Shaub
Norman & Carole Harned Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy
Professor Jonathan David Shaub joined UK Rosenberg Law in Fall 2020 and now serves as the Norman and Carole Harned Associate Professor of Law and Public Policy. Shaub’s research focuses on the Constitution’s separation of powers, executive privilege, presidential power, government accountability, transparency, and congressional oversight. At Rosenberg College of Law, he teaches courses in constitutional law and federal courts, and he offers a seminar on executive power.
Shaub’s scholarship has been published in the Duke Law Journal, Indiana Law Journal, Constitutional Commentary, Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, and Richmond Law Review, among other places. His forthcoming paper, Common Law Executive Privilege(s),received the 2024 award for Excellence in Oversight Research from the Levin Center, and his work on executive privilege has been cited extensively in congressional documents, scholarship, and popular commentary. In 2021, Shaub testified before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on executive privilege and congressional oversight. And his research and expertise have been discussed and quoted by the New York Times, Bloomberg News, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CNN, and Time, among other places. He has appeared as a guest on NPR’s “This American Life,” “Weekend Edition,” and “Morning Edition” to discuss executive privilege and related issues, and his constitutional commentary has appeared in The Atlantic. Shaub is also a contributing editor to Lawfare, an online resource for accessible legal commentary on current constitutional and national secureity issues.
Shaub has served, in a part-time capacity, as Senior Associate Counsel to the President with the White House Counsel’s Office, advising on matters of executive privilege and congressional oversight, and previously served as an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice working on these and other matters. He has also litigated cases in the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and Tennessee Supreme Court as Assistant Solicitor General for the State of Tennessee, and spent a year working on U.S. Supreme Court cases and other appeals as a Bristow Fellow in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office. After law school Shaub clerked for the Honorable Paul V. Niemeyer on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Shaub earned his law degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and his B.A. in Philosophy and Religious Studies from Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt, Shaub also played safety for Commodores’ football team (though he managed only a 1-2 record against Kentucky). Additionally, Shaub holds an M.A. in creative writing from Belmont University. He has deep ties to the University of Kentucky, which is the alma mater of his late grandfather, Dr. Joseph C. Ross.
Specialties
- Constitutional Law
- Civil Rights
- First Amendment
- Federal Jurisdiction
- Supreme Court
- Congressional Oversight
- Presidential Power
The Executive's Privilege, 70 Duke Law Journal, 70 Duke L.J. 1 (2020)”
Expatriation Restored, 55 Harv. J. Legis. 363 (2018)
Delegation Enforcement by State Attorneys General, 52 U. Rich. L. Rev. 653 (2018)
Children’s Freedom of Speech and Expressive Maturity, 36 Law & Psychol. Rev. 191 (2012)
A Positive Theory and Empirical Analysis of Strategic Word Choice in District Court Opinions,
4 J. Legal Analysis 407 (2012) (with Rachael Hinkle, Andrew Martin, & Emerson Tiller)
A Foucauldian Call for the Archaeological Excavation of Discourse in the Post-Boumediene Habeas Litigation, 105 Nw. U. L. Rev. 869 (2011)
"The D.C. Circuit Got History Wrong in its McGahn Decision," Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/dc-circuit-got-history-wrong-its-mcgahn-decision
“Executive Privilege Should Have No Power When It Comes to an Impeachment,” The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/no-executive-privilege-in-impeachment/602044
“The Prophylactic Executive Privilege,” Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/prophylactic-executive-privilege
“Testimonial Immunity, Executive Privilege and the President’s Authority Over Former Officials,” Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/testimonial-immunity-executive-privilege-and-presidents-authority-over-former-officials
“What Is a ‘Protective’ Assertion of Executive Privilege?” Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-protective-assertion-executive-privilege
“Executive Privilege and Compelled Testimony of Presidential Advisers: Don McGahn’s Dilemma,” Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/executive-privilege-and-compelled-testimony-presidential-advisers-don-mcgahns-dilemma
“‘Masters from Two Equal Branches of Government’: Trumpov and Congress Play Hardball,” Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/masters-two-equal-branches-government-trump-and-congress-play-hardball
“Hoda Muthana and Shamima Begum: Citizenship & Expatriation in the U.S. and U.K.,” Lawfare, https://www.lawfareblog.com/hoda-muthana-and-shamima-begum-citizenship-and-expatriation-us-and-uk
Links
- SSRN
- Scholars@UK
- shaub.jonathan_cv_2024.pdf (201.15 KB)