Biography
Professor Dickinson's teaching and scholarship focus on constitutional law, property, and affordable housing law and policy. His scholarship has featured in numerous law reviews and op-eds, including the The Atlantic, Washington Post and The Hill. In 2017, Professor Dickinson was asked to submit testimony to the U.S. Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee regarding the Trump Administration's border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He also writes in the areas of executive powers, separation of powers and the structure and history of the U.S. Constitution.
Prior to joining the academy, Professor Dickinson was a Fulbright Scholar to South Africa, where he organized tenants and advocated on behalf of squatters in the inner-city slums and shantytowns of Johannesburg. He represented indigent tenants in eviction proceedings in Harlem, New York City. Professor Dickinson also practiced law at Reed Smith LLP (Pittsburgh), where he founded and coordinated the firm's Housing Rights Project, a pro bono initiative advocating on behalf of indigent tenants in eviction proceedings in Allegheny County in collaboration with the Neighborhood Legal Services Association. Today, Professor Dickinson continues to represent several community groups in Pittsburgh as lead counsel in affordable housing projects, including the establishment of one of the region's first community land trusts located in a predominantly black neighborhood.
He clerked for the Honorable Theodore A. McKee, former Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
Professor Dickinson is also a candidate for Democratic nomination in Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District in 2020.
Key/Recent Publications
- Intratextual and Intradoctrinal Dimensions of the Constitutional Home, 15 Duke J. Const. L. & Pub. Pol’y __ (2019).
- The Puzzle of the Constitutional Home, 80 Ohio St. L.J. __ (2019).
- State Constitutional General Welfare Doctrine, 40 Cardozo L. Rev. 2943 (2019).
- Federalism, Convergence and Divergence in Constitutional Property, 73 U. Miami L. Rev. 139 (2018).
- Cooperative Federalism & Federal Takings After the Trump Administration's Border Wall Executive Order, 70 Rutgers U. L. Rev. 647 (2018).
- Property Musings at the US-Mexico Border, 33 Md. J. Int'l L. 162 (2018) (Symposium Invitation).
- Written Testimony of Gerald S. Dickinson for the Senate Hearing on Fencing Along the Southwest Border, (Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, April 4, 2017).
- Landowners' FCC Dilemma: Rereading the Supreme Court's Armstrong Opinion After the Third Circuit's DePolo Ruling, 11 N.Y.U. J.L. & Liberty 218 (2017).
- Inclusionary Takings Legislation, 62 Vill. L. Rev. 135 (2017).
- Towards a New Eviction Jurisprudence, 23 Geo. J. on Poverty L. & Pol'y 1 (2015).<
- Inclusionary Eminent Domain, 45 Loy. U. Chi. L.J. 845 (2014)
- The Blue Moonlight Remedy: Formulating the Voucher Scheme into A New Emergency Housing Remedy in South Africa, 130 S. African L.J. 554 (2013).
- Stasis and Change in Environmental Law, 24 Fordham Envtl. L. Rev. 1 (2013).
- Blue Moonlight Rising: Evictions, Alternative Accommodation & A Comparative Perspective on Affordable Housing Solutions in Johannesburg, 27 S. Afr. J. on Hum. Rts 466 (2011).
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Editorials
- The National Emergencies Act was never meant for something like Trump’s wall, The Washington Post, Jan. 31, 2019.
- What Trump Can and Can’t Do to Get His Border Wall, The Atlantic, Jan. 8, 2019.
- Trump's militarized land seizure for border wall is more complicated than 'I can do it if I want', The Hill, Jan. 7, 2019.
- The Founders would have opposed seizing land for Trump’s border wall, Washington Post, Nov. 29, 2017.
- Affordable Housing in Pittsburgh: The importance of framing a legally sound inclusionary zoning proposal, Public Source, May 17, 2017.
- The biggest problem for Trump’s border wall isn’t money. It’s getting the land, Washington Post, Mar. 3, 2017.
- Forget the funding for the wall, Trump needs the land first, The Hill, Aug. 25, 2017.