José Joel Alicea is the inaugural St. Robert Bellarmine Professor of Law and Director of the Law School’s Center for the Constitution and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition. He has also served as a Visiting Professor at Duke Law School and Notre Dame Law School. Prior to joining the Catholic Law faculty, Professor Alicea practiced law for several years at the law firm of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, where he specialized in constitutional litigation. He previously served as a law clerk for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., on the United States Supreme Court and for Judge Diarmuid F. O'Scannlain on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Professor Alicea’s scholarship has focused on constitutional theory. His scholarship has appeared, or is forthcoming, in the Yale Law Journal, the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Virginia Law Review, and the Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. He has also been active in public debates about constitutional law, publishing essays in journals such as City Journal and National Affairs.

Professor Alicea is a Fellow at the Columbus School of Law's Center for Religious Liberty and a Nonresident Fellow at The American Enterprise Institute.

Professor Alicea is the recipient of the University's Young Faculty Scholar's Award, which recognizes "a member of the faculty for demonstrated achievement during the first four years of appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor and promise of potentially significant scholarship." He is also the three-time recipient of the Dean's Research Award, which is "granted to a full-time law faculty member whose research over the past year reflects the traits of top legal scholarship," including "rigor, creativity, [and] engagement with the broader legal scholarship community." Finally, Professor Alicea has been honored with the teaching award of "Outstanding Professor of First-Year Classes."

Professional Research and Writing

Law Review Articles

Articles

Bruen Was Right, 174 U. Pa. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025) (SSRN)

Constitutional Theory and the Problem of Disagreement, 173 U. Pa. L. Rev. 321 (2025) (SSRN)

Practice-Based Constitutional Theories, 133 Yale L.J. 568 (2023) (SSRN)

The Moral Authority of Original Meaning, 98 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1 (2022) (SSRN)

The Role of Emotion in Constitutional Theory, 97 Notre Dame L. Rev. 1145 (2022) (SSRN)

Liberalism and Disagreement in American Constitutional Theory, 107 Va. L. Rev. 1711 (2021) (SSRN)

The Limits of New Originalism, 15 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 1161 (2013) (with Donald L. Drakeman) (SSRN)

Shorter Pieces

Constitutional Theory at a Catholic University, 75 Cath. U. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025) (SSRN)

Originalism and Truth-Telling: A Reply to Stephen Sachs, 48 Harv. J.L. Pub. Pol’y 361 (2025) (SSRN)

The Natural Law Moment in Constitutional Theory, 48 Harv. J.L. Pub. Pol’y 307 (2025) (SSRN)

The October 2021 Term and the Challenge to Progressive Constitutional Theory, 2023 Wis. L. Rev. 659 (2023) (SSRN)

The Originalist Jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito, 2023 Harv. J.L. Pub. Pol'y Per Curiam 13 (2023) (SSRN)

Note, Stare Decisis in an Originalist Congress, 35 Harv. J.L. & Pub. Pol'y 797 (2012)
 (SSRN)

Originalism and the Legislature, 56 Loy. L. Rev. 513 (2010)
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Selected Essays

Originalism, the Administrative State, and the Clash of Political Theories, The Heritage Foundation (March 20, 2025)

Natural Law and Popular Sovereignty: A Response to My Anonymous Critic, Nat'l Rev. (Aug. 30, 2023)

Anchoring Originalism, Nat’l Rev. (June 22, 2023)

An Originalist Victory, City J. (June 24, 2022)

Why Originalism Is Consistent with Natural Law: A Reply to Critics, Nat'l Rev. (May 3, 2022)

The Debate We Should Be Having about Catholicism and the Constitution, Nat'l Rev. (Apr. 20, 2022)

Dobbs and the Fate of the Conservative Legal Movement, City J. (Dec. 5, 2022)

Against the Tiers of Constitutional Scrutiny, Nat'l Aff., Fall 2019, at 72 (with John D. Ohlendorf)

The Supreme Court’s 2014–2015 Term: The Year the Administrative State Trembled, The Pub. Discourse (Sept. 3, 2015)

Originalism and the Rule of the Dead, Nat'l Aff., Spring 2015, at 149

Constitutional Compromise and Classical Liberalism, Liberty Law Forum (March 11, 2014)

Real Judicial Restraint, Nat'l Aff., Fall 2013, at 69

Chief Justice Roberts and the Changing Conservative Legal Movement, The Pub. Discourse (July 10, 2012)

Forty Years of Originalism, Pol'y Rev., June–July 2012, at 69

Gingrich, Desegregation, and Judicial Supremacy, The Pub. Discourse (Jan. 5, 2012)

An Originalist Congress?, Nat'l Aff., Winter 2011, at 31

Amicus Briefs

New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, No. 20-843 (U.S.), Brief of Amicus Curiae J. Joel Alicea in Support of Petitioners and Reversal (with John D. Ohlendorf)