Jamal Greene

Dwight Professor of Law

Constitutional LawComparative Constitutional LawFederal CourtsFirst Amendment

Jamal Greene is the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, where he has taught since 2008. He clerked for Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Guido Calabresi on the Second Circuit. From 2023 to 2024, he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice. He is a co-chair of the Facebook Oversight Board and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Teaching Style

Professor Greene employs a rigorous Socratic method that pushes students to question foundational assumptions about rights and constitutional structure. He is known for cold-calling students systematically and expecting them to defend positions they may personally disagree with. His classes emphasize comparative perspectives, and he frequently draws on international examples to challenge American constitutional orthodoxy.

Cold Call Tips

1Read assigned cases carefully and be ready to articulate the holding, reasoning, and any dissents — Greene often starts by asking you to state the rule before pivoting to critique it
2Prepare to argue both sides of a constitutional question; he frequently asks students to defend the position opposite to their instinct
3Familiarize yourself with comparative constitutional frameworks, especially European and South African approaches to rights balancing
4Pay attention to the structure of legal arguments, not just outcomes — Greene cares deeply about how you reason, not what conclusion you reach