- Civil Procedure
- Constitutional Law
- Ethical Lawyering
- First Amendment
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Education
- BA, summa cum laude, University of Pennsylvania
- JD, magna cum laude, University of Michigan Law School
Background
After graduating from the University of Michigan Law School, Aaron Caplan clerked for the Honorable Betty Binns Fletcher, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. From 1992 to 1998, he worked in the Seattle office of Perkins Coie, where his practice included intellectual property matters and other types of commercial litigation. He also maintained an active pro bono practice that included capital habeas corpus, asylum, death with dignity, and freedom of speech.
In 1998, Caplan became the first full-time staff attorney in more than 20 years for the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, where his practice included freedom of speech, freedom of religion, gay rights, prisoner's rights, access to government documents and much more. At the ACLU, his litigation included some of the nation’s first decisions on the free speech rights of public school students on the Internet, the first challenge to the federal No Fly List, and the first decision to order the reinstatement of a gay officer discharged under the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell statute.
Professor Caplan joined the Loyola Law School faculty in 2008. He teaches in the areas of constitutional law and civil procedure.
Selected Scholarship
- An Integrated Approach to Constitutional Law, (Foundation Press 2nd Ed. 2018)
- The First Amendment's Forgotten Clauses, 63 J. Legal Educ. 532 (2014)
- Free Speech and Civil Harassment Orders, 64 Hastings L.J. 101 (2013)
- A Glossary for the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (2012)
- Nonattainder as a Liberty Interest, 2010 Wisc. L. Rev. 1203 (2010)
- Invasion of the Public Forum Doctrine, 46 Willamette L. Rev. 648 (2010)
- Freedom of Speech in School and Prison, 85 Wash. L. Rev. 71 (2010)
- Visions of Public Education in Morse v. Frederick, 3 J. Educ. Controversy No. 1 (2008)
- The History of Women's Jury Service in Washington, 59 Wash. St. Bar News 12 (2005)
- Stretching the Equal Access Act Beyond Equal Access, 27 Seattle U. L. Rev. 273 (2004)
- Public School Discipline for Creating Uncensored Anonymous Internet Forums, 39 Willamette L. Rev. 93 (2003)
Profiles
- Ten Years With the ACLU, Washington State Bar News (July 2008)
- True Believer, Washington Law and Politics (Summer 2007)
- Aaron Caplan Profile, King County Bar Bulletin (January 1999)