Amanda L. Hollis-Brusky is an American

Constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

scholar who specializes in the politics of the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

and the

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

legal movements of

originalism In the context of United States law, originalism is a theory of constitutional interpretation that asserts that all statements in the Constitution must be interpreted based on the original understanding "at the time it was adopted". This conce ...

and

textualism Textualism is a formalist theory in which the interpretation of the law is primarily based on the ordinary meaning of the legal text, where no consideration is given to non-textual sources, such as intention of the law when passed, th ...

. She is the chair of the politics department at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popul ...

Early life and education

Hollis-Brusky majored in political science and philosophy at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

, graduating in 2003. She then pursued a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, which she earned in 2010. Her dissertation was titled "The Federalist Society and the Structural Constitution: An Epistemic Community at Work".

Career

Hollis-Brusky joined the politics department at

in 2011. In 2014, she won the Wig Award, the college's highest faculty honor, in recognition of her teaching. She is frequently consulted by media outlets on Supreme Court issues. In 2015, she interviewed Supreme Court Justice

Sonia Sotomayor Sonia Maria Sotomayor (, ; born June 25, 1954) is an American lawyer and jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. She was nominated by President Barack Obama on May 26, 2009, and has served since ...

, and in 2020 she interviewed U.S. Attorney General

Eric Holder Eric Himpton Holder Jr. (born January 21, 1951) is an American lawyer who served as the 82nd Attorney General of the United States from 2009 to 2015. Holder, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama, was the first African America ...

and testified before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee on

judicial independence Judicial independence is the concept that the judiciary should be independent from the other branches of government. That is, courts should not be subject to improper influence from the other branches of government or from private or partisan inte ...

. Her first book, ''Ideas with Consequences'', about the

Federalist Society The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies (abbreviated as FedSoc) is an American conservative and libertarian legal organization that advocates for a textualist and originalist interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. Headquartered ...

, won the 2016 C. Herman Pritchett award, the

American Political Science Association The American Political Science Association (APSA) is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903 in the Tilton Memorial Library (now Tilton Hall) of Tulane University in New Orleans, ...

's award for best legal studies book. Her second book, ''Separate but Faithful'', was written with Joshua C. Wilson and focuses on the Christian conservative legal movement. Reviewer Daniel Bennett, writing in ''

Perspectives on Politics ''Perspectives on Politics'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering political science. It was established in 2003 and is published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Political Science Association. The editor- ...

'', called it "a detailed and methodologically impressive account" that uses "an innovative theoretical framework" and "has the potential to wield lasting influence". She is an editor of ''

The Monkey Cage "The Monkey Cage" is the 10th television play episode of the first season of the Australian anthology television series ''Australian Playhouse''. "The Monkey Cage" was written by Ruth Funner and directed by Wilf Buckler and originally aired on A ...

'' blog at ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

''.

Books

* *

Personal life

Hollis-Brusky lives in

References

External links

Faculty page
at Pomona College
Research page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hollis-Brusky, Amanda Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Pomona College faculty American political scientists American women political scientists American legal scholars American scholars of constitutional law Boston University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni