Introduction
John F. Manning (born 1961) is a prominent American legal academic and the Bruce Bromley Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He graduated from Harvard College in 1982 and from Harvard Law School in 1985. Following law school, he served as a law clerk to Judge Robert H. Bork at the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then served as law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia for the Supreme Court's 1988 term.
Manning was brought to Harvard Law School by Dean Elena Kagan to help shore up Harvard Law School's expertise in public law; he is an expert in administrative law and a constitutional scholar of textualism. Manning's hiring, along with that of Jack Goldsmith, has "helped assuage complaints that Harvard marginalized conservative views." Manning is also an expert on separation of powers issues. On July 23, 2012, the Supreme Court appointed Manning amicus curiae, in Sebelius v. Auburn Regional Medical Center. He argued the case on December 4, 2012.
On April 30, 2013, Manning was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Published Works
Manning is the coauthor of two leading textbooks:
- Hart and Wechsler's The Federal Courts and the Federal System (6th ed. 2009) (with Richard H. Fallon, Jr., Daniel J. Meltzer, and David L. Shapiro).
- Legislation and Regulation (2010) (with Matthew C. Stephenson).
He has also written more than thirty law review articles. Some of his most-cited pieces are:
- Constitutional Structure and Judicial Deference to Agency Interpretations of Agency Rules, 96 Colum. L. Rev. 612 (1996).
- Textualism as a Nondelegation Doctrine, 97 Colum. L. Rev. 673 (1997).
- The Nondelegation Doctrine as a Canon of Avoidance, 2000 Sup. Ct. Rev. 223 (2000).
- Textualism and the Equity of the Statute, 101 Colum. L. Rev. 1 (2001).
- The Absurdity Doctrine, 116 Harv. L. Rev. 2387 (2003).
- The Eleventh Amendment and the Reading of Precise Constitutional Texts, 113 Yale L.J. 1663 (2004).
- Nonlegislative Rules, 72 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 893 (2004).
- Textualism and Legislative Intent, 91 Va. L. Rev. 419 (2005).
- What Divides Textualists from Purposivists?, 106 Colum. L. Rev. 70 (2006).
- Federalism and the Generality Problem in Constitutional Interpretation, 122 Harv. L. Rev. 2003 (2009).