Barbara Perry
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Phone: 434-243-1123
Barbara A. Perry, senior fellow and associate professor in the Miller Center’s Presidential Oral History Program, is a well-known scholar of the U.S. Supreme Court and the American presidency. She is also an authority on the Kennedy presidency. Previously, she was the Carter Glass Professor of Government and founding director of the Center for Civic Renewal at Sweet Briar College in Virginia. In 1994-95 she was the judicial fellow at the U.S. Supreme Court, where she received the Tom C. Clark Award as the outstanding fellow that year. Her duties included researching and drafting speeches for Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist. Perry was the senior fellow at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center in 2006-07 and now serves as a non-resident fellow there. She is a frequent media commentator on public affairs for international and national newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and Internet, including CNN, C-SPAN, MS-NBC, BBC, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, New York Times, Washington Post,andUSA Today. Perry is a regular guest on Wisconsin Public Radio’s At Issue.
Professor Perry earned a Ph.D. in government from the University of Virginia, an M.A. in politics and philosophy from Oxford University, and a B.A. in political science, with highest honors, from the University of Louisville.
View her curriculum vitae.
Miller Center Projects
At the Miller Center, Barbara Perry is collaborating with Professor Russell Riley, chair of the Presidential Oral History Program, on the oral history of George W. Bush’s presidency. They are conducting research on and interviews of Bush administration officials.
Books
The Supremes: An Introduction to the United States Supreme Court Justices, 2nd ed.(Peter Lang, 2009).
The Michigan Affirmative Action Cases(University Press of Kansas, 2007).
Jacqueline Kennedy: First Lady of the New Frontier(University Press of Kansas, 2004).
Freedom and the Court: Civil Rights and Liberties in the United States, 8th edition, with Henry J. Abraham (University Press of Kansas, 2003).
The Priestly Tribe: The Supreme Court’s Image in the American Mind(Praeger, 1999; winner of a 2001 Choice Award).
Civil Rights and Liberties Under the Constitution, 6th ed., with M. Glenn Abernathy (University of South Carolina Press, 1993).
A “Representative” Supreme Court? The Impact of Race, Religion, and Gender on Appointments(Greenwood, 1991).
Unfounded Fears: Myths and Realities of a ConstitutionalConvention, with Paul J. Weber (Greenwood Press, 1989).
Forthcoming Books
Rose: Mother of the Kennedy Image, Norton.
Catholics and the Supreme Court, Georgetown University Press.
Articles/Entries
“A Female Trinity: Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan on the U.S. Supreme Court,” University of Virginia Center for Politics, Crystal Ball, On-line journal, May 13, 2010.
“Justice John Paul Stevens’s Supreme Court Odyssey: From Gerald Ford Republican to Barack Obama Democrat,” University of Virginia Center for Politics, Crystal Ball, On-line journal, April 15, 2010.
“Supremely Representative: Should the Supreme Court Look Like America?” University of Virginia Center for Politics, Crystal Ball, On-line journal, June 4, 2009.
“‘[url=“http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?collecti>The Bush Twins’? Roberts, Alito, and the Conservative Agenda,</a>” Judicature, May-June 2009.
“The Supreme Court in Popular Culture,” Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the U.S., Macmillan Reference USA, 2008.
“Jefferson’s Legacy to the Supreme Court: Freedom of Religion,” 31 Journal of Supreme Court History(2006): 181-98.
“Original Intent or Evolving Constitution? An Overview of Two Competing Views on Interpretation,” American Bar Association’s Insights on Law & Society, Summer 2004.
“J. Harvie Wilkinson III,” with Henry J. Abraham, in Great American Judges: An Encyclopedia, John R. Vile, ed. ABC-CLIO, 2003: 807-813.
“Privacy,” Historical and Multicultural Encyclopedia of Women’s Reproductive Rights in the United States, Judith Baer, ed. Greenwood Press, 2002.
“The ‘Brooding Omnipresence’ in Bush v. Gore: Anthony Kennedy and the Equality Principle,” with Stephen G. Bragaw, 13 Stanford Journal of Policy and Law(Spring 2002): 19-32.
“The U.S. Supreme Court in the American Mind,” 66Social Education(January/February 2002): 30-33.
“Supreme Court Symbols and Images in the United States and Israeli Supreme Courts,” 63 Review of Politics(Spring 2001): 317-39.
“Defending the Third Branch in the Twenty-First Century: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Judicial Independence,” in Judicial Independence: Essays, Bibliography, and Discussion Guide, Teaching Resource Bulletin No. 6, American Bar Association, Division for Public Education, 1999: 1-7.
A “Representative” Supreme Court? The Thomas, Ginsburg, and Breyer Appointments,” with Henry J. Abraham, 81 Judicature(January-February 1998): 158-65.
“‘Separateness but Interdependence, Autonomy but Reciprocity’: A First Look at Federal Judges’ Testimony Before Legislative Committees,” with Harvey Rishikof, 46 Mercer Law Review(1995): 667-95.
“‘Constitutional Johnny Appleseeds’: American Consultants and Their Contributions to Foreign Constitutions,” 55 Albany Law Review, 3 (1992): 767-92.
“George Washington,” The Oxford Companion to the SupremeCourt, Oxford University Press, 1992, p. 918.
“Anthony M. Kennedy,” “David H. Souter,”Encyclopedia ofWorld Biography, Vol. 17 (1992): 308-310, 512-14; “Abe Fortas,” “Ruth Bader Ginsburg,”“Clarence Thomas,” Vol. 18 (1995): 126-27, 145-47, 347-49.
“The Life and Death of the ‘Catholic Seat’ on the United States Supreme Court,” VI Journal of Law and Politics1 (Fall 1989): 55-92.
“Justice Black and the ‘Wall of Separation Between Church and State,’” Journal of Church and State, 31 (Winter 1989): 55-72.
Book Chapters
“John Marshall,” with Henry J. Abraham, in Forgotten Founders: Those Who Founded America but America Forgot, Butler Books, 2009.
“Catholics and the Supreme Court: From the ‘Catholic Seat’ to the New Majority,” in Catholics and Politics: The Dynamic Tension between Faith and Power, Georgetown University Press, 2008.
“The Supreme Court and Race,” in Exploring Judicial Politics, Oxford University Press, 2008.
“Affirmative Action in Higher Education: Gratz v. Bolinger andGrutter v. Bollinger,” in Creating Constitutional Change: Clashes Over Power and Liberty in the Supreme Court, University Press of Virginia, 2004.
“Lawyer-Presidents’ Supreme Court Appointments,” in America’s Lawyer-Presidents, Northwestern Press, 2004.
“William H. Rehnquist and the Conservative Counterrevolution,” in Great Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court: Ratings and Case Studies, Peter Lang Publishing, 2004.
“The Media and Civil Rights and Liberties,” in Media and Politics, Mark Rozell, ed. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003.
“Splitting the Difference: The Supreme Court’s Search for the Middle Ground in Racial Gerrymandering Cases,” in Superintending Democracy: The Courts and the Political Process, University of Akron Press, 2001.
“John F. Kennedy,” in Presidents of the United States, Garland Publishing Co., 2000.
“The Father of Our Country as Court-Packer-in-Chief: George Washington and the Supreme Court,” with Henry J. Abraham, in George Washington and the Origins of the American Presidency, Praeger, 2000.
“Equal Protection: Gender and Sexual Preference,” in The Bill of Rights, the Courts, and the Law, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, 1999.
“The Reagan Supreme Court Appointees,” with Henry J. Abraham, in Great Justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., 1993.
“The Presidency and the Selection of Judges,” in Problems, Process, and Interaction, Vol. 4, University Press of America, 1993.
“Race and the Death Penalty,” with Donald Davison and Michael Krassa, Chapter 7 in 1991 JAI Research Annual on Lawand Policy Studies: 189-239.
Recent Media Work
<a href=“http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/id/222742”]C-SPAN broadcast, Barbara Perry delivers lecture "The Supreme Court Appointment Process" at the U.S. Supreme Court, April 20, 2010. Perry is introduced by Chief Justice John Roberts[/url]
Perry interviewed for USA Today article: "Short list for court picks shows ties to Obama"
Washington Post interview on Catholic Majority on the U.S. Supreme Court, June 20, 2009
CNN Politics.COM: "Sotomayor to face scrutiny over sensitive issues, rulings"
CNN Politics.COM: "Sotomayor would be part of court’s Catholic shift"
CNN Politics.COM: "Why Michelle Obama inspires women around the globe"
Barbara Perry to Discuss Jackie Kennedy’s Influence at UVa Miller Center Forum
Virginia Festival of the Book Program: "The Campus Client: Legal Issues in Higher Education"
Interview on National Public Radio: "A History of Diversity on the High Court"
University of Virginia Newsmakers: Jacqueline Kennedy Discussion
Richmond Times Dispatch: "College Experts Anticipate Obama’s Inaugural Address"
Boston Herald: "Edward Kennedy at rest with brothers, vets"
Sotomayor confirmation hearings, Wisconsin Public Radio "At Issue", July 16, 2009
Legacy of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Wisconsin Public Radio "At Issue", Aug. 27, 2009
Perry Interviewed by Swiss TV on the replacement of retiring Justice John Paul Stevens