Tom is an American political scientist and constitutional law scholar who serves as the Michael O. Sawyer Chair of Constitutional Law and Politics and Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Oberlin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University. Before joining Syracuse, he taught as an assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma. He is also a Research Affiliate at the Centre on Law and Social Transformation at the University of Bergen.
His empirical scholarship focuses on judicial politics, the U.S. Supreme Court, freedom of expression, and democratic backsliding. His books include The Most Activist Supreme Court in History: The Road to Modern Judicial Conservatism and Judicial Politics in Polarized Times, both published by the University of Chicago Press. His journal articles examine legal mobilization strategies across political factions and the systemic impacts of court-packing and judicial review during periods of intense partisan polarization. His work on Supreme Court decision-making earned him the American Political Science Association’s Houghton-Mifflin Award. Recognized widely for his contributions to socio-legal studies and democratic resilience, he has been named a Carnegie Fellow and a Guggenheim Fellow.