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The best law schools for constitutional law are the ones with litigating clinics rather than just strong faculty, because constitutional practice is built on appellate work. Georgetown's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection and Supreme Court Institute lead, then Columbia, Yale and Stanford. Twenty verified programs ranked below.
Ranked by whether the school runs a litigating constitutional or appellate clinic, then by research center depth. Federal clerkship rate is included because it is the strongest single career signal for this specialty.
#SchoolNamed center or programFirms 101+Fed clerkships1GeorgetownInstitute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection; Supreme Court Institute61.6%5.0%2ColumbiaCenter for Constitutional Governance; Knight First Amendment Institute78.4%4.1%3YaleSupreme Court Advocacy Clinic; Gruber Rule of Law Clinic37.4%23.2%4StanfordStanford Constitutional Law Center48.9%19.5%5UVAProgram in Constitutional Law; Supreme Court Litigation Clinic69.2%10.7%6UChicagoJenner and Block Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic63.9%22.7%7HarvardCharles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice58.8%16.6%8NYUArthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program67.4%5.5%9PennNational Constitution Center partnership71.4%7.9%10Notre DameReligious Liberty Initiative and Moroun Clinic40.9%17.1%11GWInstitute for Constitutional Studies32.5%2.6%12DukeFirst Amendment Clinic74.8%11.7%13TexasBech-Loughlin First Amendment Center43.8%14.3%14BerkeleyCalifornia Constitution Center62.2%6.4%15VanderbiltStanton Foundation First Amendment Clinic61.1%10.8%16CornellFirst Amendment Clinic65.5%5.6%17WashUFirst Amendment Clinic53.5%11.7%18GeorgiaFirst Amendment Clinic28.8%9.4%19BYUInternational Center for Law and Religion Studies34.6%7.1%20Ohio StateElection Law at Moritz35.0%1.3%
Centers verified from each school's own pages, July 26, 2026. Outcome columns from each school's 2025 ABA 509 report and class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary, verified July 26, 2026.
Georgetown, for a reason specific to its location. Its Supreme Court Institute moots essentially every case argued before the Supreme Court, which is an institutional position no other law school occupies, and its Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection litigates directly.
Columbia's Center for Constitutional Governance paired with the Knight First Amendment Institute gives it both a research center and an active litigating institute. Yale runs a Supreme Court Advocacy Clinic and the Gruber Rule of Law Clinic.
UVA and UChicago both run Supreme Court and appellate clinics, which is the practical training that distinguishes a constitutional law program from a constitutional law reading list.
Follow the clerkship column, because constitutional practice runs through appellate courts and appellate hiring runs through clerkships. Yale at 23.2 percent, UChicago at 22.7 percent, Stanford at 19.5 percent and Notre Dame at 17.1 percent lead the field.
That is the honest career path: a strong clerkship, ideally at the appellate level, then either an appellate practice group, a government office, a public interest litigating shop, or academia.
Two schools stand out for specific ideological and doctrinal niches rather than general strength. Notre Dame's Religious Liberty Initiative and BYU's International Center for Law and Religion Studies are the clearest religious liberty programs in this set, and Ohio State's Election Law at Moritz is the leading election law program.
Seven schools in this table run a dedicated First Amendment clinic: Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, WashU, Georgia, Texas through the Bech-Loughlin Center, and Columbia through Knight.
This is worth naming separately because First Amendment work is where a large share of actual constitutional litigation happens, and a clinic gives you cases as a student rather than seminars about cases.
For a student who wants courtroom constitutional work rather than academic constitutional theory, that clinic column is more predictive than any ranking.
Constitutional law is one of the smallest practice areas relative to how many students want to do it. There is no large private market for it in the way there is for corporate or litigation work.
The realistic paths are government, appellate practice inside a firm's litigation group, public interest organizations, and academia, and all four are competitive and clerkship-dependent. Our clerkship table and academia table cover the two gateways directly.
Choose a school that also serves a fallback. Georgetown at 61.6 percent large-firm placement and Columbia at 78.4 percent give you a constitutional path and a career if it does not materialize.
A research center produces scholarship and hosts workshops. A litigating clinic gives you cases, filings and sometimes argument time while you are still a student. For constitutional practice the second is the training that transfers.
Georgetown, Columbia, Yale, UVA and UChicago all run appellate or Supreme Court clinics where students work on live matters. Georgetown's Supreme Court Institute occupies a position no other school does, mooting essentially every case argued before the Court.
Seven schools run dedicated First Amendment clinics: Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, WashU, Georgia, Texas through Bech-Loughlin, and Columbia through Knight. First Amendment work is where a large share of real constitutional litigation happens.
Two schools own specific doctrinal niches rather than general strength. Notre Dame's Religious Liberty Initiative and BYU's International Center for Law and Religion Studies are the clearest religious liberty programs here, and Ohio State's Election Law at Moritz leads election law.
Constitutional law is among the smallest practice areas relative to student interest, and there is no large private market for it the way there is for corporate or general litigation work.
The four realistic paths are government, appellate practice inside a firm's litigation group, public interest litigation, and academia. All four are competitive and all four run substantially through clerkships.
That is why the clerkship column belongs in this table. Yale at 23.2 percent, UChicago at 22.7 percent and Notre Dame at 17.1 percent are the strongest gateways in this set.
Choose a school that also serves the fallback, because most people who enter law school wanting constitutional work end up doing something else, at least at first.
Every number in the table comes from a primary disclosure: each school's 2025 ABA Standard 509 Information Report for admissions, cost and aid, and its class of 2025 ABA Employment Summary for outcomes. Both are filed annually and both are free to read.
We did not use rankings, surveys or reputation. Where a figure required arithmetic, such as a percentage or a net cost, we state that it is our arithmetic and give the inputs so you can check it.
Where we could not verify something, the table says so rather than filling the gap with an estimate. That is why some rows read not published or not verified instead of carrying a number that would look more complete and mean less.
It cannot tell you your outcome. Every figure here describes a class of several hundred people, and your position inside that distribution is set by first-year grades that have not happened yet.
It cannot price your offer, because aid depends on where your numbers sit against each school's medians rather than on the median award. Half of every school's grant recipients got less than the figure shown.
And it cannot capture fit, culture, or whether you will do your best work in that building for three years. Those are discoverable only by visiting and asking current students specific questions, which is worth more than any table on this site.
Target the clerkship first, because appellate practice, government litigating offices and academia all run through it. The clerkship column in this table is the practical ranking.
Choose a school with a litigating clinic rather than only a research center, since the clinic is where you get filings and argument experience while still a student.
And pick a doctrinal lane. Religious liberty, election law, First Amendment and civil rights are all constitutional practice and they hire from different programs.
Georgetown, whose Supreme Court Institute moots essentially every case argued before the Court and whose Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection litigates directly. Columbia, Yale, Stanford, UVA and UChicago all run appellate or Supreme Court clinics.
Follow federal clerkship placement, since constitutional practice runs through appellate courts. Yale at 23.2 percent, UChicago at 22.7 percent, Stanford at 19.5 percent and Notre Dame at 17.1 percent lead.
Seven in this set: Duke, Vanderbilt, Cornell, WashU, Georgia, Texas through the Bech-Loughlin Center, and Columbia through the Knight First Amendment Institute.
It is a small field relative to student interest, with no large private market. The realistic paths are government, appellate practice inside firm litigation groups, public interest litigation and academia, and all are clerkship-dependent.
Written by Ali, Georgetown Law, founder of Lovare Institut.
July 30, 2026
July 30, 2026