Professor of History, East Stroudsburg University
Dr. Brooks is currently professor of history at East Stroudsburg University, where he teaches several courses, including African Americans and the Courts and US Constitutional History and Law and other courses in legal history. Further to his work at ESU, he is also a founding member and vice president of the Harrisburg lawyers' chapter of the Federalist Society.
Professor Brooks received his BA and MA in US History from East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania. He then received a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship to Edinburgh University (Scotland), where he studied British influences on the US judiciary. He completed his doctoral work at Kassel University (Germany). There he worked on the international “Modern Constitutionalism” project, editing and translating constitutions from German to English and English to German. His doctoral work there focused in particular on eleventh amendment sovereignty issues and law during the US founding era.
While in Germany, Prof. Brooks was an active member of the Center for North American Research, where he focused on constitutional and legal history, especially as it pertained to jurisprudential matters. He ran a solo business where he trained attorneys in several mid- to large-sized German and international law firms in legal English and communication. Prof. Brooks also did legal translation for many firms and for Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court, that nation’s highest court. Two books resulting from his work there include German Employment Law: 618 Questions Frequently Asked by Foreigners (2014) and Expats in Germany - Inbound and Outbound: Questions Frequently Asked by Foreigners (2017).
Current areas of research include state appellate judicial selection reform, early black attorneys, and comparative employment law.
Dr. Brooks has also written extensively Real Clear Politics, Real Clear Pennsylvania, and Allentown’s The Morning Call. His work has also appeared in New York Daily News, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and The Hill.
Senior Fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence, Independence Institute
Professor Robert G. Natelson is a constitutional scholar and author.
Rob’s constitutional scholarship has been cited repeatedly by justices and parties at the U.S. Supreme Court—as well as by federal appeals courts, and at least 18 state supreme courts.
Rob’s research into the Constitution’s original meaning has carried him to libraries throughout the United States and in Britain, including four months at Oxford University. His books and articles span many different parts of the Constitution, including groundbreaking studies of the Necessary and Proper Clause, the Indian Commerce Clause, federalism, Founding-Era interpretation, regulation of elections, and the amendment process of Article V. He created the first-ever online bibliography for 18th century materials used in constitutional research. He is a contributing author to the Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (on Magna Carta). He contributed eight essays to the third edition of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution: five on the amendment procedure and one each on the Guarantee Clause, the Postal Clause, and the Recess Appointments Clause.
U.S. Supreme Court justices have relied explicitly on Rob’s research in 41 citations in 13 separate cases.
Critical Race Theory: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly
Maine Lawyers Chapter
Portland, METhe Founders Interpret the Constitution: The Division of Federal and State Powers
Robert G. Natelson
Note from the Editor: This article surveys ratification-era statements by defenders of the proposed Constitution...
Reception with Faulkner Law Review
Montgomery, Alabama