Patrick Schmidt

Judicial and Constitutional politics, legal profession and lawyers, U.S. Supreme Court, transparency and disclosure, bureaucracy and regulation, information policy, technological change, architecture

Professor Schmidt’s interests range across public law and American politics.  He has long been fascinated with, and loves teaching judicial politics, including the U.S. Supreme Court, constitutional law, and American legal and political development.  Indeed, anything “legal” can pique his interest, and he has maintained a steady interest in the study of the legal profession, which informs his role as a pre-law advisor and co-Director of the Legal Studies program at Macalester.  Schmidt also maintains an active research agenda in the interdisciplinary field of Law and Society, with particular interest in regulation and governance.  He looks to collaborate with students in research projects, including his recent research on transparency and disclosure.  Married with four kids, Schmidt is an unrepentant beer geek, having sampled more than 4,200 different beers from 116 different countries over the past fifteen years.

• BA: University of Minnesota, Summa Cum Laude
• PhD: Johns Hopkins University