Office Details
Administrative Assistant: Latosha Davis, 410.837.4689
John and Frances Angelos Law Center, Room 1006
Education
J.D., University of Michigan Law School, cum laude
B.A., Cornell University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa
Fulbright Scholar, Leiden University, The Netherlands, Spring 2025
Areas of Expertise
Administrative Law
Civil Procedure
Constitutional Law
Federal Courts
Biography
Kimberly Wehle is a professor of law, author, legal analyst, and nationally recognized expert on the U.S. Constitution, the Supreme Court, and American democracy. She joined the faculty of the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2009, where she teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law, federal courts, civil procedure, and the U.S. Supreme Court, with a particular focus on the separation of powers, executive authority, and democratic accountability.
In 2026–2027, Professor Wehle is a Fellow and Theme Group Coordinator at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) in Amsterdam, where she leads an interdisciplinary research group examining institutional vulnerabilities and democratic resilience in an era of rising autocratization and artificial intelligence. Her work explores the structural conditions that enable democratic institutions to withstand or succumb to concentrations of political, economic, and technological power.
In 2025, she was a Fulbright Scholar at Leiden University and the inaugural Thinker-in-Residence at the John Adams Institute in Amsterdam.
A sought-after speaker and commentator, Professor Wehle speaks internationally about constitutional government, presidential power, the Supreme Court, the rule of law, and the challenges facing democratic institutions. She brings a distinctive combination of academic expertise, firsthand experience in federal government and litigation, and a talent for making complex legal and political issues accessible to general audiences. Her work connects the constitutional principles underlying American democracy to broader international questions about democratic resilience, institutional accountability, and the future of self-government.
Her scholarly articles have appeared in leading law reviews, including the Notre Dame Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Stanford Law & Policy Review, and North Carolina Law Review. Her work has also been cited in a leading Federal Courts casebook. She received the University System of Maryland Board of Regents Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 2020 and the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Faculty Award for Public Discourse Scholarship in 2021.
Professor Wehle is the author of four books for general audiences that make complex legal and constitutional concepts accessible to readers, including How to Read the Constitution—and Why, What You Need to Know About Voting—and Why, and How to Think Like a Lawyer—and Why, all published by HarperCollins. Her most recent book, Pardon Power: How the Pardon System Works—and Why, received the 2025 Silver Award in Political and Current Events from the Independent Book Publishers Association.
She is also a legal contributor to ABC News and previously served as an on-air legal analyst and commentator for CBS News. She is a regular opinion columnist for Zeteo and The Hill and is frequently interviewed by major national and international media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, BBC World News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, PBS NewsHour, and Al Jazeera. She has published commentary in The Bulwark, The Atlantic, Politico, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Los Angeles Times, and The Baltimore Sun, among other publications. Professor Wehle also publishes the twice-weekly newsletter, The Little Law School with Kim Wehle, bringing constitutional education and legal analysis directly to a broad public audience.
The President and the Hive: Swarm Intelligence in Constitutional Perspective, 81 U. Miami L. Rev. (forthcoming Spring 2027).
Sovereign Scrutiny, Wm. & Mary Bill Rts. J. (forthcoming Spring 2027).
The Ninth Amendment Post-Dobbs: Could Federalism Swallow Unenumerated Rights?, 83 Md. L. Rev. 867 (2024).
Executive Accountability Legislation from Watergate to Trump—and Beyond, 7 Univ. Pa. J. L. & Pub. Aff. 37 (2021) (with Jackson Garrity).
“Law and” the OLC’s Article II Immunity Memos, 32 Stan. L. & Pol’y Rev. 1 (2020).
Public Laws and Private Lawmakers, 93 Wash. Univ. L. Rev. 615 (2016).
Defining Lawmaking Power, 51 Wake Forest L. Rev. 881 (2016).
Outsourcing, Data Insourcing, and the Irrelevant Constitution, 49 Ga. L. Rev. 607 (2015).
Anonymity, Faceprints, and the Constitution, 21 Geo. Mason L. Rev. 409 (2014).
'We the People,' Constitutional Accountability, and Outsourcing Government, 88 Ind. L.J. 1347 (2013).
Government by Contract and the Structural Constitution, 87 Notre Dame L. Rev. 491 (2011).
Presidential Control of the Elite ‘Non-Agency’, 88 N.C. L. Rev. 101 (2009).
Justiciable Generalized Grievances, 68 Md. L. Rev. 221 (2008).
What's Left Standing? FECA Citizen Suits and the Battle for Judicial Review, 55 Kan. L. Rev. 677 (2007).