Biography
Professor Zachary Price began teaching at UC Hastings as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 2013, following a one-year fellowship at the Stanford Law School Constitutional Law Center. He has been an Associate Professor at UC Hastings since 2015.
Before entering academics, Professor Price served for three years as an attorney in the Office of Legal Counsel, a component of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. that provides authoritative legal advice to the President, Attorney General, and executive branch agencies. He has also worked as a litigator in private practice and clerked at all three levels of the federal judiciary, for Judge Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the U.S. Supreme Court. He graduated from Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 2003 and from Stanford University with honors and distinction in 1998.
Professor Price’s research focuses on questions of constitutional structure. His interests include constitutional law, civil procedure, statutory interpretation, and federal Indian law. His work has appeared in the Vanderbilt Law Review, Columbia Law Review, New York University Law Review Online, and Fordham Law Review.
Areas of Expertise (5)
Constitutional Law
Civil Procedure
Statutory Interpretation
Federal Indian Law
Administrative Law
Education (2)
Harvard Law School: J.D. (Magna Cum Laude), Law 2003
Stanford University: With Honors and Distinction, Humanities 1998
Links (2)
Media Appearances (5)
After Scalia: The Rule of Lenity
Scotusblog online
2016-09-02
Blogpost by Professor Price addressing impact of Justice Scalia's departure on the rule of lenity.
Taking Care of the Take Care Clause
National Law Journal, Supreme Court Brief online
2016-03-16
Interview with Professor Price.
Dividing Sovereignty: Commonwealth of Puerto Rico v. Sanchez Valle
Balkinization online
2016-01-24
Blogpost by Professor Price addressing then-pending Supreme Court case.
President or king? Translated, that’s what the Supreme Court is asking about Obama.
Washington Post online
2016-01-25
Quoting Professor Price.
George Will: Obama's Extreme Use of Executive Discretion
Washington Post print
2013-12-18
Discussing Professor Price's work.
Selected Articles (9)
Funding Restrictions and Separation of Powers
Vanderbilt Law Review2018-03-14
Addresses whether and to what degree Congress may control executive authorities through appropriations.
Our Imperiled Absolutist First Amendment
University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law2018-04-25
Addresses the historical origins and potential vulnerability of the United States's distinctive approach to protecting expressive freedom.
Reliance on Nonenforcement
William & Mary Law ReviewAddresses possible due process protections for reliance on executive nonenforcement policies.
Seeking Baselines for Negative Authority: Constitutional and Rule-of-Law Arguments Over Nonenforcement and Waiver
Journal of Legal Analysis2016-05-02
Discusses constitutional and rule-of-law debates over negative exercises of executive authority.
Law Enforcement as Political Question
Notre Dame Law Review2016-04-01
Addresses judicial authority to review exercises of executive enforcement discretion.
Enforcement Discretion and Executive Duty
Vanderbilt Law Review2014-04-06
Addresses the scope of executive authority to decline enforcement of federal laws.
Dividing Sovereignty in Tribal and Territorial Criminal Jurisdiction
Social Sciences Research Network2013-03-31
Proposes a framework for analyzing recurrent jurisdictional questions in criminal prosecutions by territorial governments and Native American tribes.
Namudno's Non-Existent Principle of State Equality
New York University Law Review2013-01-31
Challenges the doctrine of state equal sovereignty recently embraced by the Supreme Court.
The Rule of Lenity as a Rule of Structure
Fordham Law Review2004-03-01
Argues for the reinvigoration of the rule of lenity, the historic canon of construction that penal laws should be construed in the defendant's favor.