Maureen Edobor Tapped for Inaugural Brennan Center Fellows Program Professor Edobor is among the first five recipients of the Polan Fellowship in Constitutional Law and History.

By Law Communications
May 16, 2024

Washington and Lee law professor Maureen Edobor has been selected as one of the first five recipients of the Steven M. Polan Fellowship in Constitutional Law and History. The fellowship comes from a new program launched by the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute housed at New York University Law School.

According to the Center, the Polan Fellows program is intended to provide a platform for outstanding individuals — including legal practitioners, advocates, and scholars — to spur urgently needed debate over the meaning and promise of the U.S. Constitution.

“I am a long admirer of the Brennan Center for Justice and their impactful work in upholding the values of democracy,” said Professor Edobor. “In exploring originalism’s historical, textual, and analytical proprieties and shortcomings, I look forward to research and scholarship that scrutinizes how judicial interpretation of the Constitution’s text constrains and expands government power, equality, and individual liberty.”

As a Polan Fellow, Professor Edobor will organize forums marking the 250th anniversary of the Articles of Confederation, the United States’ first constitution. This series will consider why the framers replaced the weak, decentralized system of government under the Articles with our current Constitution — and consider its relevance to 21st-century originalism.

Professor Edobor, 2017 graduate of W&L Law, joined the law school in the fall as an Assistant Professor of Law. She also is a core faculty member of the Delaney Center, W&L’s interdisciplinary academic hub that promotes teaching and research on race and Southern identity. Professor Edobor’s scholarship appears or is forthcoming in the UCLA Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania’s Journal of Constitutional Law, the George Washington Law Review, and the Washington and Lee Law Review.

Professor Edobor previously served as the Policy Director and Counsel for the Congressional Black Caucus, advancing the Caucus’ legislative portfolio in both the House of Representatives and Senate. In addition, she served as Counsel for Congressman Jamie Raskin’s subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, overseeing a portfolio including environmental justice, voting rights, and criminal justice reform.

Prior to working in Congress, Professor Edobor served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State Law, focusing her research agenda on Constitutional Law. She drew expertise from her experience as a Staff Attorney at the League of Women Voters, where she managed the national litigation portfolio on elections, redistricting, and voting rights during the 2020 election cycle.

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