Gillian E. Metzger

Gillian Metzger, Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law, at Columbia Law School is a scholar of administrative and constitutional law. She writes and teaches in the areas of administrative law, constitutional law, and federal courts, with an emphasis on federalism and privatization.

Metzger, currently on public service leave, was named senior counselor at the Department of Justice in 2021.

She is a co-editor of Gellhorn & Byse’s Administrative Law: Cases and Comments, 12th ed. (Foundation Press, 2018), a seminal administrative law casebook, as well as The Health Care Case: The Supreme Court’s Decision and Its Implications (Oxford University Press, 2013), which looked back at the landmark 2012 Affordable Care Act case. 

In 2012, Metzger helped launch Columbia Law School’s Center for Constitutional Governance (CCG)—where she now serves as faculty director—a nonpartisan legal and policy organization devoted to the study of constitutional structure and authority. CCG brings together a diverse group of constitutional scholars to explore policy areas such as health care, civil rights, immigration, financial regulation, and national security.

Metzger also has co-authored and filed numerous amicus briefs in major constitutional and administrative law challenges before the Supreme Court and other courts. Most recently, Metzger filed a brief in Seila Law Center v. CFPB, a separation of powers challenge, and in Kisor v. Wilkie, a case involving judicial deference to agencies. She has also filed briefs in cases involving reproductive rights and the Affordable Care Act, among others.