Stephen R. Alton
Professor of Law
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Courses: Property, Estates & Trusts, and American Legal History Seminar

Professor Stephen Alton joined the faculty of the Texas Wesleyan University School of Law in 1990, after the school had been in existence for just one semester. Promoted to full professor in 1996, Professor Alton has also served as associate dean for special projects from 1997-98, and as the chair of the Texas Wesleyan University faculty from 2007-08. Prior to teaching, Professor Alton practiced law in Dallas and Houston before returning to Fort Worth, where he managed a real estate investment and management company until he began teaching full-time. In spring 2001, Professor Alton was a Fulbright scholar and lecturer at Wuhan University Law School, Wuhan, China, where he taught U.S. Constitutional Law and U.S. State & Local Government Law.

Professor Alton has taught various subjects, including Property, Estates & Trusts, Real Estate Transactions, Constitutional Law, State & Local Government, and American Legal History. His research interests lie primarily in the area of American Legal History, particularly the legal history of the New Deal. Professor Alton is also actively involved in service to both the law school and the community at large, serving, for example, on the board of trustees of the Fort Worth Public Library Foundation from 2002-07. He also is a member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Texas, and the Tarrant County Bar Association.

Professor Alton graduated from Fort Worth Country Day School in 1974 and received his A.B. in history magna cum laude, from Harvard University in 1978. In 1981, he earned his J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif. In 1986, he earned an ED.M. from Harvard University. In 1992, Professor Alton received an LL.M. from Columbia University, where he was a Lawrence Wein Fellow.

Selected Publications

From Marbury v. Madison to Bush v. Gore:  200 Years of Judicial Review in the United States, 8 Texas Wesleyan Law Review 7 (2001). [Hein][Westlaw]

Statutes in Court: The History and Theory of Statutory Interpretation, 44 Am. J. Legal Hist. 462 (2000) (with William D. Popkin). [Hein][Westlaw]

Book Review,  The Least of These: Race, Law and Religion in American Culture, 42 Am. J. Legal Hist. 209 (1998). [Hein][Westlaw]

Loyal Lieutenant, Able Advocate:  The Role of Robert H. Jackson in FDR's Battle with the Supreme Court, 5 William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal 527 (1997). [Hein][Westlaw]

Mandatory Prelicensure Legal Internship:  A Renewed Pleas for Its Implementation In Light of the MacCrate Report, 2 Texas Wesleyan Law Review 115 (1995).[Hein][Westlaw]

Mandatory Prelicensure Legal Internship:  An Idea Whose Time Has Come Again?, 41 University of Kansas Law Review 137 (1992).[Hein]

In the Wake of Thoreau:  Four Modern Legal Philosophers and the Theory of Nonviolent Civil Disobedience, 24 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 39 (1992). [Hein]