Steve Wermiel, ’82
Brenda Smith
Family Support Project. Her scholarly work examines issues related to gender, crime, and sexuality. It has earned her the Emmalee C. Godsey Research Award, the Pauline Ruyle Moore Scholar Award for Outstanding Scholarship, and the 2026 Society of American Law Teachers Great Teacher Award, recognizing her impact as both a scholar and educator.
She has testified before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and the Department of Justice Review Panel on Prison Rape, and addressed a White House Convening on Women and Girls in the Criminal Justice System in 2016. In 1993, she received the Kellogg National Leadership Fellowship, and in 1998, she was inducted into the D.C. Women’s Hall of Fame for her advocacy on behalf of low-income women and children.
Steve Wermiel ’82, Professor of the Practice of Law Few legal scholars can claim they covered the Supreme Court of the United States for more than a decade and then brought that experience into the classroom. Steve Wermiel, professor of the practice of law, has done exactly that. As a The Wall Street Journal correspondent covering the Court from 1979 to 1991, Wermiel had extraordinary access to the justices and their deliberations, building an understanding of constitutional law that few academics can match. Earlier in his career, he served as a Washington correspondent for The Boston Globe. He also holds a J.D. from AUWCL, making his decades of service here a full-circle journey.
In keeping with the AUWCL tradition of a clap-out, students, faculty, and staff gathered for one of the largest send-offs in recent memory to celebrate Professor Wermiel following his final constitutional law class. Through his teaching and mentorship, he inspired generations of students.
At AUWCL, Wermiel taught constitutional law, First Amendment, and a seminar on the inner workings of the Supreme Court. He has served as a longtime adviser to the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project, which sends law students into D.C. public high schools to teach constitutional law, and as faculty adviser to the Moot Court Honor Society. He writes an occasional column on SCOTUSblog aimed at explaining the Court to law students and serves on the editorial advisory boards of the American University Law Review and the Administrative Law Review.
He is co-author of “Justice Brennan: Liberal Champion,” the definitive biography of Justice William J. Brennan Jr., and “The Progeny,” an examination of the legacy of The New York Times v. Sullivan. In the ABA, he chaired the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, co-chaired its Free Speech Free Press Committee, and received the section’s Robert F. Drinan Award in 2018.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON COLLEGE OF LAW 45
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