Magliocca received his B.A. degree from
Stanford University and his
J.D. degree from
Yale Law School. He served for a year as a law clerk for Judge
Guido Calabresi on the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and then two years as an attorney at
Covington & Burling. Thereafter, Magliocca joined the faculty at
Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law. His second book,
The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan (
Yale Univ. Press 2011), explores how
William Jennings Bryan's campaigns for the presidency energized conservatives and transformed constitutional law by prompting a negative response to the
populist agenda. Magliocca's third book,
American Founding Son (
NYU Press, 2013), focuses on
John Bingham and his role in crafting the
14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Pushing back against many who tend to overlook Bingham, Magliocca argues he deserves to be remembered as one of America's great leaders. The book received critical praise, including from
Laurie Levenson in the
Los Angeles Review of Books, who wrote, "Professor Magliocca spares no detail in his comprehensive review of John Bingham’s life and his drafting of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution." Magliocca's fourth book,
The Heart of the Constitution (
Oxford University Press, 2018), examines the
Bill of Rights and portrays it as "a mirror for how America sees itself," taking a different form "every political season." He highlights the role of the Bill of Rights in distinguishing America during the 20th century from the totalitarian forces, its importance of its civil liberties during the
Cold War, and its elevation over the past 150 years to achieve a more inclusive and egalitarian view of American society. A review in the
Washington Post read, "the punchline of Magliocca's book is that our modern view of the Bill of Rights is far too stultifying. . . . [A]s we face a new set of crises, from war to inequality to structural exclusion, a more dynamic debate over a 21st-century bill of rights might offer some avenues forward. Magliocca's book can help us start that debate." The book also received critical praise from
Kirkus Reviews and
Allen Guelzo in The
Wall Street Journal. Contributing to the anthology
Our American Story (2019), Magliocca addressed the possibility of a shared American narrative and focused on insights a foreigner's view of America may offer, in particular the Americans' "uncommon degree of political common sense." In 2008 Magliocca held the Fulbright-Dow Distinguished Research Chair of the
Roosevelt Study Center in
Middelburg, The Netherlands. He was elected to the
American Law Institute in 2013. He has received several awards for his teaching, including Best New Professor Award, the Black Cane (Most Outstanding Professor), and the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award. Magliocca is a frequent contributor to legal blogs
Balkinization and Concurring Opinions. Much of his work set out in three books explores how major changes in American political and constitutional development occur generationally in roughly thirty-year intervals and move from dominant regime to the emergence of a counter-regime. His books have also featured on
C-Span's
Book TV show. ==Works==