Laura Cisneros

Laura Cisneros writes and lectures on constitutional law and theory, reading U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence through the lens of contemporary French philosophy and European Critical Theory. Her scholarship is interdisciplinary and intersectional, bringing concepts of language, memory, literary and political theory, and theories of power and temporality to bear on American constitutional law, especially judicial review and decision-making processes, interpretive methodologies, individual rights, equal protection, and federalism issues. She is currently completing her Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz's History of Consciousness department, with a designated emphasis in Literature. Her dissertation investigates how the Supreme Court constructs the narrative of the Constitution through its production of constitutional memory, history, and experience, with a particular focus on the Court's treatment of precedent. Her work focuses on understanding the Court’s view of temporality and change as reflected in its shifting interpretations of the Constitution over time.

• Constitutional interpretive theory
• Judicial review and decision-making processes
• Philosophy of law
• 20th century continental philosophy and European critical theory
• Interdisciplinary and intersectional scholarship

• Concepts of language and memory in constitutional law
• Literary and political theory in judicial interpretation
• Temporality and constitutional experience
• Phenomenology of time in Supreme Court decision-making
• Construction of history and constitutional memory by the Supreme Court

• Co-Director, Golden Gate University School of Law-Université Paris Nanterre Summer Law Program
• Associate Dean For Faculty Scholarship, Golden Gate University School of Law
• Chair, Executive Committee, Association of American Law Schools Constitutional Law Section
• Member, National Endowment for the Humanities NextGeneration PhD. Planning Project

• University of California Santa Cruz, PhD Candidate, History of Consciousness
• University of Wisconsin Law School, LLM, 2008
• Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, JD, 2005
• University of San Diego, BA in History, 1993

• Professor of Law, Golden Gate University School of Law
• Assistant Professor, Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law
• William H. Hastie Fellow, University of Wisconsin Law School

• The Marc Sanders Foundation Philosophy in Media Fellowship, 2024
• University of California Santa Cruz, Advancement to PhD Candidacy in History of Conscious with a Designated Emphasis in Literature with Honors, 2018
• Golden Gate University School of Law, Justice Jesse W. Carter Faculty Scholarship Award, 2013
• American Association of Law Schools, Outstanding Scholarly Paper Award (for a junior faculty member whose paper makes a substantial contribution to legal literature), 2009

• Memory, History, and Forgetting in Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, in FICTIONAL DISCOURSE AND THE LAW (Routledge) (2020)
• Environmental Resistance: Defying Capitalism’s Structure of False Rebellion 8 GOLDEN GATE U. ENVTL. L.J. 5 (2015) (lead article).
• Paging Dr. Derrida: A Deconstructionist Approach to Understanding the Affordable Care Act Litigation 54 SANTA CLARA L. REV. 19 (2014)
• Transformative Properties of FDR’s Court-packing Plan and the Significance of Symbol, 15 U. Pa. J. Const. L. 61 (2012).
• Youngstown Sheet to Boumediene: A Story of Judicial Ethos and the (Un)Fastidious Use of Language, 115 W.VA. L. REV. 577(2012).