Sam Erman

Sam Erman joined USC Gould School of Law as an Assistant Professor of Law from the Smithsonian Institution where he served as a Latino studies postdoctoral fellow.

Erman’s primary areas of research include the history of Puerto Rico and its relations with the United States. His dissertation, Puerto Rico and the Constitution: Struggles around Status and Governance in a New Empire, 1898-1925 examines closely the United States’ promise of citizenship to Puerto Rico.

In 2012 Erman served as a visiting professor of criminal law at Peking University School of Transactional Law. He also worked as a graduate student instructor in the University of Michigan’s program in American culture. He co-designed and assisted in teaching an undergraduate seminar on The Boundaries of Citizenship: From Dred Scott to Plessy for the University of Michigan’s History Department.

Prior to his fellowship at the Smithsonian Institution, Erman was a Raoul-Berger-Mark DeWolfe Howe Legal History Fellow at Harvard Law School. He clerked for Judge John Paul Stevens and Judge Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court and Judge Merrick B. Garland of the United States Court of Appeals.

He received his JD from the University of Michigan Law School, summa cum laude, and his PhD in American Culture from the University of Michigan. He completed his AB in English at Harvard College, cum laude.

Books

• Almost citizens: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Constitution, and Empire, (Cambridge University Press, 2018) - (www)

Articles and Book Chapters

• "Reconstruction and Empire: Legacies of the U.S. Civil War and Puerto Rican Struggles for Home Rule, 1898-1917," (Under consideration by Law and History Review). - (SSRN)
• “Citizens of Empire: Puerto Rico, Status, and Constitutional Change,” 102 California Law Review 1181 (October 2014). - (SSRN)
• "Affirmative Meritocracy," 7 Social Issues and Policy Review (with Walton, G., and Spencer, S.) (forthcoming 2013).
• "Meanings of Citizenship in the U.S. Empire: Puerto Rico, Isabel Gonzalez, and the Supreme Court, 1898-1905," 27 Journal of American Ethnic History 5 (2008) (Received the Carlton C. Qualey Memorial Article Award: The best article published in the Journal of American Ethnic History during the past two years). - (www)
• "An 'Unintended Consequence': Dred Scott Reinterpreted," 106 Michigan Law Review 1157 (2008) (reviewing Austin Allen, Origins of the Dred Scott Case (2006)). - (Hein)
• Note, "Word Games: Raising and Resolving the Shortcomings in Accident-Insurance Doctrine that Autoerotic-Asphyxiation Cases Reveal," 103 Michigan Law Review 2172 (2005). - (Hein)

Other Works

• Citizens of Empire: Federico Degetau, Puerto Rican Status, and the U.S. Order, 1898-1905 (manuscript).

Dissertation

• Puerto Rico and the Promise of United States Citizenship: Struggles Around Status in a New Empire, 1898-1917 (Ph.D. dissertation). - (www)

FACULTY IN THE NEWS

Los Angeles Times
June 18, 2019
Re: Jody David Armour

quoted Jody David Armour was quoted on the recent incident of an LAPD officer opening fire in a Costco store, and the legitimacy of firearm permits in California. “The real question will be whether a reasonable person in the situation of the shooter would have believed he was under attack, threatened with death or serious bodily injury,” said Armour. “The shooter has to feel like they’re about to be attacked and there was no less drastic alternative.” Armour's quote was also mentioned in the MSN, The San Diego Union-Tribune, and Pittsburgh-Post Gazette.

RECENT SCHOLARSHIP

Lisa Klerman
April, 2019

“Labor and Employment Law Jeopardy,” Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section Annual Retreat, Westlake Village, CA.

Hannah Garry
April, 2019

Hannah Garry co-facilitated "#MeToo" at the International Human Rights Clinicians Conference held at the Univeristy of Pennsylvania Law School.

Thomas D. Lyon
April, 2019

Tom Lyon received a one-year $250,000 grant from the California Office of Emergency Services Child Advocacy Center Program for his and his lab's interviewing work in the Los Angeles County Dependency Court.