{"id":252,"date":"2018-12-05T12:06:37","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T17:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/constitution-center\/?page_id=252"},"modified":"2026-05-07T13:45:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T17:45:24","slug":"thomas-m-cooley-book-prize-symposium","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/constitution-center\/chase-lecture-and-colloquium\/thomas-m-cooley-book-prize-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"Cooley Book Prize, Judicial Lecture & Symposium"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Cooley Book Prize, Judicial Lecture and Symposium honors the renowned legal scholar and jurist Thomas McIntyre Cooley. Cooley was a longstanding chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, and a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, where he also served as the dean. He authored several highly influential books, including A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union.<\/em><\/p>\n

2025 Book Prize<\/h2>\n

To Trust the People with Arms: the Supreme Court and the Second Amendment<\/em><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Georgetown Center for the Constitution<\/a> is pleased to announce that Robert J. Cottrol, Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School, and Brannon P. Denning, Associate Dean and Professor of Law at Samford University\u2019s Cumberland School of Law, have been awarded the 2025 Thomas M. Cooley Book Prize<\/a> of $50,000 for their book, \u201c<\/span>To Trust the People with Arms: The Supreme Court and the Second Amendment<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u201d (University Press of Kansas, 2023).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Randy Barnett<\/span><\/a>, Faculty Director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, praised the selection:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhile other scholarship, including my own, has focused on the original meaning of the Second Amendment, this book traces the treatment given that amendment from the founding until today by Congress and state legislatures, by state and federal courts, and eventually by the U.S. Supreme Court. Cottrol and Denning situate their\u00a0 narrative in the political movements for gun control that arose in the 20th century in response to gang violence in the 1920s and to the explosion of street crime in the 1960s. I learned a ton from reading this book.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On May 22nd, 2025, Professors Cottrol and Denning will receive the Cooley Prize at an award ceremony at the National Archives.<\/p>\n