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Anthony Gaughan
Associate Dean
Kern Family Chair in Law
Professor of Law
Expertise: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Election Law, Evidence, Insurance Law, Legal and Constitutional History
Education
JD, Harvard Law School
PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison (History)
MA, Louisiana State University
BA, University of Minnesota
Experience
- Drake Law School professor since 2011
- Iraq War veteran and former U.S. Navy officer
- Senior Fellow in the Election Law Program at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
- Appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court to the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure Review Task Force
- Five years as litigator with large Wisconsin law firm
Selected Publications
- Cyclical Misalignment: A History of Campaign Finance Law, 86 Ohio State Law Journal (2025).
- The Unsettled State of Corporate General Personal Jurisdiction, 103 Nebraska Law Review 131 (2024).
- Voting in Colonial and Revolutionary America, in Eugene Mazo, ed., The Oxford Handbook of American Election Law (Oxford University Press, 2024).
- Redistricting in the Political Thicket: The Ghosts of Colegrove v. Green, 111 Kentucky Law Journal 589 (2023).
- The Influence of Partisanship on Supreme Court Election Law Rulings, 36 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy 553 (2022).
- The Dynamics of Democratic Breakdown: A Case Study of the American Civil War, 11 British Journal of American Legal Studies 113 (2022) (peer reviewed).
Significant Accomplishments
- Elected Member of the American Law Institute
- Leland Forrest Outstanding Professor of the Year, Drake University Law School (2015, 2016, 2021, and 2025)
- Stevens Faculty Scholar of the Year, Drake University Law School (2023)
- Defense Meritorious Service Medal, U.S. Department of Defense for service in Iraq (2008-2009)
- Iraq Campaign Medal, U.S. Department of Defense (2009)
- Excellence in Teaching Award from The Graduate School, University of Wisconsin-Madison (2000)
- French-Felton Award for Inspirational Teaching, College of Letters and Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison (1998)
Biography
Anthony Gaughan is Associate Dean, Professor of Law, and Kern Family Chair in Law at Drake University Law School. He teaches Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Election Law, Evidence, and Legal & Constitutional History. In August 2024, he was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure Review Task Force. He is also a Senior Fellow in the Election Law Program at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
Prior to joining Drake Law, Gaughan was a litigator with a large Wisconsin law firm. He is an Iraq veteran and former U.S. Navy officer. He has taught at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, the University of Nebraska College of Law, and the University of Iowa College of Law as a visiting professor.
Gaughan is author of the book, The Last Battle of the Civil War: United States versus Lee, 1861-1883 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011) (peer reviewed), a legal history of the Supreme Court's famous Arlington National Cemetery case. He has published articles with a wide range of journals, including the Journal of Supreme Court History; the Duke Journal of Constitutional Law and Public Policy; the Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics & Public Policy; the American Journal of Legal History; the British Journal of American Legal Studies; the Ohio State Law Journal; the Fordham Law Review; and the American University Law Review.
Gaughan received the Leland Forrest Outstanding Professor of the Year award four times from the graduating class at Drake Law School (2015, 2016, 2021, and 2025). He was awarded the Defense Meritorious Service Medal and the Iraq Campaign Medal for his military service in Iraq.
