Announcement of Winners of the 2025 Brown Award

The Judge John R. Brown Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce the winners for the 2025 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing:

First Place ($15,000 to the winner and $5,000 to the scholarship fund selected by the Dean of Notre Dame Law School):

(Strict) Scrutinizing Regulatory Exemptions: The Dormant Commerce Clause’s Lessons for Litigating Our “Most Favored Right” by Dennis J. Wieboldt III (sponsored by Richard W. Garnett, Paul J. Schierl/Fort Howard Corp. Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame Law School).

Second Place ($7,500):

First Amendment Independent Appellate Review’s Overlooked Origin Story by Courtney C. Douglas (sponsored by Leslie Kendrik, Dean and Arnold H. Leon Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law).

Third Place ($5,000):

The Evolution of Standing and the Need for Foundational Realism: A Historical Inquiry from Hayburn to Harvard by Elliot A. Mermel (sponsored by Russell K. Osgood, Professor, Washington University in St. Louis Law School).

Finalists ($2,500 each):

The Future of Law: Navigating Constitutional Interpretation, Corporate Power, and Emerging Technologies in a Rapidly Changing World by Bradesha Carter (sponsored by Murphy Bell, Professor, Southern University Law Center).

Raphael Fulgosius on Just War: Papal Adjudication of Conflicts and War as Judgment by Max Kuhelj Bugaric (sponsored by Bruce H. Mann, Carl F. Schipper, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School).