Todd C. Peppers Professor of Practice
Phone: 540-458-8375
Email: pepperst@wlu.edu
Office: 485 Lewis Hall
Todd Peppers
Areas of Expertise
Death Penalty, Judicial Behavior, Supreme Court History, Torts
Education
BA, 1990, Washington and Lee University
JD, 1994, University of Virginia
PhD, 2003, Emory University
About
After graduating from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1994, Peppers clerked for United States District Court Judge Thomas M. Shanahan and United States Magistrate Judge Glen E. Conrad. While attending graduate school at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, Peppers also worked as an associate at the law firm of Hawkins and Parnell. In 2002, Peppers joined the Department of Public Affairs at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He remained of counsel with Hawkins and Parnell until 2004, and from 2008 to 2011 he was a Lecturer in Law at the Washington and Lee University School of Law. Peppers presently holds the Henry H. and Trudye H. Fowler Chair at Roanoke College. Peppers has been a Visiting Professor of Law from 2011 to present.
Recent Publications
Books
Of Courtiers and Princes: Stories of Lower Court Clerks and Their Judges (Todd C. Peppers, ed.), University of Virginia Press (February 2021)
A Courageous Fool: Marie Deans and Her Fight against the Death Penalty (Todd C. Peppers with Margaret Anderson), Vanderbilt University Press (2017)
Of Courtiers & Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices (Todd C. Peppers and Clare Cushman, eds.), University of Virginia Press (2015)
In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices (Todd C. Peppers and Artemus Ward, eds.), University of Virginia Press (2012)
Anatomy of an Execution: The Life and Death of Douglas Christopher Thomas (Todd C. Peppers and Laura Anderson), Northeastern University Press (2009)
Courtiers of the Marble Palace: The Rise and Influence of the Supreme Court Law Clerk, Stanford University Press (2006)
Book Chapters
"Family Traditions: Parents and Children Who Have Clerked at the Court," Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices, University of Virginia Press (2015)
"Of Cert. Petitions and LBJ: Clerking for Justice Abe Fortas" (Todd C. Peppers, Chad Oldfather, and Bridget Tainer-Parkins), Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices, University of Virginia Press (2015)
"Summer Vacation with Will and Misch: Chief Justice William Howard Taft and his Law Clerks," Of Courtiers and Kings: More Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices, University of Virginia Press (2015)
"The Modern Clerkship: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Her Law Clerks," In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices, University of Virginia Press (2012).
"Half-Clerk, Half-Son: Justice Felix Frankfurter and His Law Clerks" (Todd C. Peppers and Beth See Driver), In Chambers: Stories of Supreme Court Law Clerks and Their Justices, University of Virginia Press (2012)
Articles
"'Destructive to Judicial Dignity:' The Poetry of Melville Weston Fuller." Journal of Supreme Court History (forthcoming, Fall 2021) (with Mary Hill).
"Gertrude Jenkins, Unplugged." "Deborah Gelin: Supreme Court Pioneer." Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly (forthcoming, Fall 2021).
"Remembering Judge Conrad." Roanoke Bar Review (September 2021).
"What We Should Learn from the Death of Virginia's Death Penalty." Roanoke Bar Review (June 2021).
"Cancelling Justice? The Case of James Clark McReynolds." Richmond Public Interest Law Review Vol. 24, No. 2 (May 2021): 59-78.
"Deborah Gelin: Supreme Court Pioneer." Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly (March 2021).
"A Secretary's Absence for a Law School Exam." Green Bag Almanac & Reader (Winter 2020): 156-166.
"Melville Weston Fuller and the Great Mustache Debate of 1888." Journal of Supreme Court History Vol. 45, No. 2 (July 2020): 140-150.
"Mourning the Magnificent Yankee: The Funeral of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr." Supreme Court Historical Society Quarterly (June 2020).
"Clerking for 'God's Grandfather' - Chauncey Belknap's Year with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr." (Todd C. Peppers, Ira Matetsky, Elizabeth R. Williams and Jessica Winn), Journal of Supreme Court History (2018)
"The Commonwealth of Virginia v. Joseph Michael Giarratano: A Cautionary Tale," Washington and Lee Law Review (2016)
"Truthiness and the Marble Palace" (Chad M. Oldfather and Todd C. Peppers), Emory Law Journal Online (2016)
"Policy Making Under Constraint: Decision Modes in the U.S. Court of Appeals" (Micheal W. Giles, Joshua Strayhorn and Todd C. Peppers), Justice System Journal (2015)
"Judicial Assistants or Junior Judges: The Hiring, Utilization, and Influence of Law Clerks" (Chad Oldfather and Todd C. Peppers), Marquette Law Review 2014)
"Surgeons or Scribes? The Role of United States Court of Appeals Law Clerks in 'Appellate Triage'" (Todd C. Peppers, Micheal W. Giles, and Bridget Tainer-Parkins), Marquette Law Review (2014)