The Federalist Society is honored to announce that the winner of the 2023 Joseph Story Award is Professor Jennifer Mascott of George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School. The annual award recognizes a junior academic (ten years or less on the tenure track or 40 and under) who has demonstrated excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact in a manner that advances the rule of law in a free society. It is named for Joseph Story, who was appointed to the Supreme Court at the age of 32, served as the first Dane Professor of Law at Harvard, and wrote Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States. The Story Award is the successor to the Paul M. Bator Award, established in 1989 in memory of Professor Bator for similar purposes.

Matt Phillips, a student at the University of Chicago Law School and the 2023 Joseph Story Award Chair, presented the award to Professor Mascott on March 4th at the Federalist Society's 2023 National Student Symposium. The Symposium was hosted by the University of Texas School of Law’s Federalist Society Student Chapter. 

Mr. Phillips began by detailing Professor Mascott’s scholarly contributions.  Referencing her article “Who Are Officers of the United States?,” which he called “an originalist tour de force,” Mr. Philips noted that Professor Mascott’s “seminal work”situated her at the “forefront of the national debate” on the separation of powers. He said Prof. Mascott is an “intellectual trailblazer” and “stalwart defender of the rule of law.” He also pointed out her extensive involvement in the legal profession, including her “incredible thought leadership” as the Co-Executive Director of the Gray Center, Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and Vice Chair of the Constitutional Law and Separation of Powers Committee within the ABA’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice, as well as  her “tireless public service” at the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice. 

Finally, Phillips described Professor Mascott’s strength as a “dedicated teacher and mentor” to her students at Scalia Law. He identified her various roles on campus, including that of faculty director of the law school’s Supreme Court and Administrative Law clinics, founder of the Separation of Powers Clinic, and co-professor with two Supreme Court Justices. In the words of her students, she is a “fantastic instructor” and “wonderful person” who “models a commitment to family and takes genuine joy in her profession.” Mr. Phillips closed with a moment of silence to honor the memory of Professor Mascott’s late husband, Jeff Mascott, who passed away only a few days earlier, on February 28, after battling advanced pancreatic cancer. 

In accepting the award, Prof. Mascott remarked that the award came at a tragic and difficult time for her and her family.  But she noted that the award also provided the opportunity to “reflect on deep-seated values of family, sacrifice, and faith that are important to this community and to the development and flourishing of personal excellence and character in the practice of law.” 

Prof. Mascott began by thanking and remembering her late husband Jeff, who through his dedication to family enabled her to “enjoy government service at the Department of Justice, to join many law school symposia, conferences, and Federalist Society chapter events around the country, and to take a lengthy period of time in our basement as a Georgetown Olin/Searle Fellow when I researched the original meaning of officers of the United States.”  She also thanked her inlaws and her many mentors in the legal community who throughout the years “provided encouragement and a model of excellence for scholarship, service, and family oriented values along the way.”  

Prof. Mascott also expressed her gratitude to then-Judge Kavanaugh and Justice Thomas for making “their chambers a welcome place for expectant and new moms trying to juggle work and family,” as well as for creating a community that proved critical to her being able to return to fulltime work after eight years largely away from the law to spend time with her four young children.  She likewise extended a special thank you to her former co-clerk Will Consovoy, also tragically recently taken by cancer, for his “personal acts of generosity and sacrifice” in chambers and later during her transition to teaching. Prof. Mascott described George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School as “a place where ideas can flourish and free debate can be pursued,” thanking former Dean Henry Butler, current Dean Ken Randall, and academic deans Helen Alvare and Rachelle Holmes Perkins for making such an environment possible.

Prof. Mascott closed with the observation that Joseph Story, too, had a life filled with family and early loss, “eventually having seven children but facing the passing of his wife and father within months of each other, at a relatively early age while nonetheless managing to be one of the most prolific legal scholars and writers of his time." Looking out over the assembled crowd of law students, colleagues, and friends on Saturday evening, Prof. Mascott concluded:

In honor of Justice Story’s legacy of excellence and the memory of Jeff, thank you to the Federalist Society for this award and the encouragement to continue to work hard, to help students and the legal community pursue truth and open debate, and to remain dedicated to values and ideals that are greater than ourselves. 

Professor Mascott joins a distinguished group of professors honored with this award and its predecessor.

Text of Prof. Mascott’s Full Remarks 

Text of Matt Phillips' Full Remarks

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