Ken Gormley to Deliver the 2026 Constitution Day Lecture

This event is FREE and open to the public. 

Ken Gormley, Constitutional scholar, award-winning author and Chancellor at Duquesne University, will deliver the 2026 Judge William O.E. Sterling Constitution Day Lecture at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. The timely topic will be Presidents and the Constitution: The Fragile Balance of Power in American Democracy. The event is free and open to the public; tickets or registration are not required. Gormley will discuss the evolving history of Presidential power in the United States; how it intersects (and collides) with the powers of Congress, the Courts and the States; and examine recent expansions of executive power – particularly during the second Trump Administration – that threaten the delicate balance of constitutional power that the Framers of the U.S. Constitution envisioned.

Gormley is Chancellor and Professor of Law at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. He previously served for ten years as President of Duquesne University and for seven years as Dean of the Thomas R. Kline School of Law. He joined the faculty in 1994, after teaching at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and engaging in private practice. Gormley earned his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1977, summa cum laude. He received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1980, serving as a teaching assistant in Constitutional Law to Professor Archibald Cox, special prosecutor during the Watergate scandal.

Gormley’s work has earned him a reputation as a highly-respected Constitutional scholar. In 1997, he published Archibald Cox: Conscience of a Nation (Perseus Books), the authorized biography of one of the leading lawyers and public servants of the 20th century. The Cox book was awarded the 1999 Bruce K. Gould Book Award for an outstanding publication relating to the law.

In 2010, Gormley published The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr (Crown), a New York Times bestseller chronicling the scandals that nearly destroyed the Clinton Presidency. The Death of American Virtue received a 2011 Silver-Gavel Award (Honorable Mention) from the American Bar Association as well as critical acclaim in publications including the New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice), Washington Post Book World (top-20 non-fiction book), Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Atlantic magazine, and dozens of others. Gormley appeared on NBC’s Today Show, NPR’s Fresh Air, and hundreds of television and radio shows in the United States and worldwide. 

Gormley’s latest non-fiction book, Presidents and the Constitution: A Living History, was published by NYU Press in 2016 (with a paperback released in 2022) and has likewise received national acclaim. That book contains a chapter on every U.S. President; a new edition will be published in 2028 including a chapter on the second Trump term. 

Gormley has organized and moderated significant programs with prominent public figures to examine important constitutional issues and key events in American history. These have included programs featuring U.S. Supreme Court justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Sonia Sotomayor and others; former president Gerald R. Ford; and most recently, former Vice President Mike Pence. He has also collaborated with the National Constitution Center to produce major events; many of his programs have been broadcast by C-SPAN television.

Gormley has testified in the United States Senate three times. He has also testified in the Pennsylvania Senate on State Constitutional matters.

Gormley formerly served as President of the Allegheny County Bar Association, the first academic to hold that position in the organization’s 137-year history. From 1998-2001, Gormley served as Mayor of Forest Hills, Pennsylvania. He lives there with his wife Laura. They have four children and six grandchildren.