{"id":144672,"date":"2026-02-23T16:57:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T00:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/23\/state-supreme-court-justice-tries-her-hand-at-teaching-con-law\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T16:57:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T00:57:22","slug":"state-supreme-court-justice-tries-her-hand-at-teaching-con-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/23\/state-supreme-court-justice-tries-her-hand-at-teaching-con-law\/","title":{"rendered":"State Supreme Court Justice Tries Her Hand At Teaching Con Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Want to know the best thing about fumbling a cold call? No matter how scary the teacher seems to be, it isn\u2019t like the judge who wrote the damned case will be there to tell you that you couldn\u2019t spot the issues. Unless, of course, you plan on taking Con Law at one of the schools below. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2026\/feb\/23\/supreme-court-justice-to-teach-at-gonzaga-seattle-\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spokesman<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Longtime Supreme Court Justice Barbra Madsen will teach state constitutional law at Gonzaga School of Law and Seattle University School of Law after retiring in April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited about teaching law, particularly state constitutional law, since I\u2019ve written so many of the opinions,\u201d Madsen said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s a natural for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If you needed some extra motivation to read the case before class, there you go! For what it\u2019s worth, she won\u2019t be in the classroom until next year. You lucked out, soon-to-be 2Ls. Future 1Ls, prepare to hit the books.<\/p>\n<p>It really is a treat to have one of the justices teaching an opinion they helped pen or dissented against. For one, they should know what they\u2019re talking about. Second, it\u2019s a great chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the process of writing opinions and balancing ideologies on the court that you\u2019d usually only get clerking for a judge. Just be sure to ask pointed follow-up questions in class or in office hours! And while it might not come up directly because of Con Law readings, you may also want to get her opinions on<a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2020\/08\/pressure-mounts-to-restore-low-cost-legal-services-program\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> access to justice issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2026\/feb\/23\/supreme-court-justice-to-teach-at-gonzaga-seattle-\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Supreme Court Justice To teach At Gonzaga, Seattle U After April Retirement<\/a> [Spokesman.com]<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Chris-Williams-2025.jpg?resize=512%2C288&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1162378\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:cwilliams@abovethelaw.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WritesForRent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2026\/02\/state-supreme-court-justice-tries-her-hand-at-teaching-con-law\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">State Supreme Court Justice Tries Her Hand At Teaching Con Law<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Want to know the best thing about fumbling a cold call? No matter how scary the teacher seems to be, it isn\u2019t like the judge who wrote the damned case will be there to tell you that you couldn\u2019t spot the issues. Unless, of course, you plan on taking Con Law at one of the schools below. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2026\/feb\/23\/supreme-court-justice-to-teach-at-gonzaga-seattle-\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spokesman<\/a> has coverage:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Longtime Supreme Court Justice Barbra Madsen will teach state constitutional law at Gonzaga School of Law and Seattle University School of Law after retiring in April.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m really excited about teaching law, particularly state constitutional law, since I\u2019ve written so many of the opinions,\u201d Madsen said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s a natural for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>If you needed some extra motivation to read the case before class, there you go! For what it\u2019s worth, she won\u2019t be in the classroom until next year. You lucked out, soon-to-be 2Ls. Future 1Ls, prepare to hit the books.<\/p>\n<p>It really is a treat to have one of the justices teaching an opinion they helped pen or dissented against. For one, they should know what they\u2019re talking about. Second, it\u2019s a great chance to get a behind-the-scenes look at the process of writing opinions and balancing ideologies on the court that you\u2019d usually only get clerking for a judge. Just be sure to ask pointed follow-up questions in class or in office hours! And while it might not come up directly because of Con Law readings, you may also want to get her opinions on<a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2020\/08\/pressure-mounts-to-restore-low-cost-legal-services-program\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> access to justice issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.spokesman.com\/stories\/2026\/feb\/23\/supreme-court-justice-to-teach-at-gonzaga-seattle-\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Supreme Court Justice To teach At Gonzaga, Seattle U After April Retirement<\/a> [Spokesman.com]<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/abovethelaw.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/06\/Chris-Williams-2025.jpg?resize=512%2C288&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1162378\" title=\"\"><figcaption><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:cwilliams@abovethelaw.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cwilliams@abovethelaw.com <\/a>and by tweet at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WritesForRent\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2026\/02\/state-supreme-court-justice-tries-her-hand-at-teaching-con-law\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">State Supreme Court Justice Tries Her Hand At Teaching Con Law<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want to know the best thing about fumbling a cold call? No matter how scary the teacher seems to be, it isn\u2019t like the judge who wrote the damned case will be there to tell you that you couldn\u2019t spot the issues. Unless, of course, you plan on taking Con Law at one of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":144673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Chris-Williams-2025-KKcY1w.jpg?fit=512%2C288&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}