Minnesota Law Welcomes Samuel J. Merchant to the Faculty in 2025

The University of Minnesota Law School is pleased to announce that Samuel J. Merchant will join the faculty in the fall of 2025 as an associate professor of law. Merchant is currently a visiting assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma College of Law, where he teaches constitutional law, criminal procedure, sentencing, and Habeas Corpus. He is also a research fellow at the Georgetown Law Center for the Constitution. From 2022 to 2023, he was a fellow at the Supreme Court of the United States, working at both the Supreme Court and the United States Sentencing Commission. In addition to an immersion in constitutional law and Supreme Court practice, Merchant helped prepare amendments to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines. He has previously worked as a federal law clerk, litigator, and business owner. 

Merchant’s research centers on sentencing theory and the intersection of criminal law and constitutional law, with a particular focus on the Founding Era. He has authored several law-review articles and the book Revolution in Redline: The Iterative Journey of the U.S. Constitution, which traces the documents and ideas that inspired the Founding Documents and examines their drafting history.

Welcome, Professor Merchant!