Professor Hollis-Brusky teaches courses on American Politics, Constitutional Law & Theory, and Legal Institutions at Pomona College. She is also one of the Co-Founders of the Southern California Law and Social Science (SoCLASS) Forum (www.soclass.org) and one of the current organizers of the Pomona College Social Science Research Confab (http://research.pomona.edu/ssrc). Her research focuses on the political construction and diffusion of legal and constitutional ideas; the dynamics of constitutional change (and the role “support structures” play in that process); and how networks of elites shape the development and articulation of law and legal policy. Her areas of expertise include the Supreme Court, Federalism, the Separation of Powers, the Unitary Executive Theory, Constitutional Theory, the Conservative Legal Movement (Federalist Society, Christian Lawyers, Tea Party), and State and Federal Contraceptive Mandates.
Most recently, she has published articles on the Conservative Legal Movement (“It’s the Network: The Federalist Society as a Supplier of Intellectual Capital for the Supreme Court.” Forthcoming in Studies in Law, Politics, and Society (2013); “Support Structures and Constitutional Change,” Law and Social Inquiry 36 (2) (2011)) and the Unitary Executive Theory (“Helping Ideas Have Consequences,” Denver University Law Review 89(1) (2012)). Her articles in-progress include an in-depth analysis of the burgeoning Christian Lawyers’ Movement (co-authored with Josh C. Wilson, John Jay CUNY) and an examination of the role of Federalist Society network idea diffusion in shaping the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizen’s United decision (co-authored with Evan Slovak, Pitzer College).
She plans to have her in-progress book manuscript (Ideas with Consequences: The Federalist Society and the Conservative Counterrevolution) completed and under review by Fall 2013.