Richard Fallon R.I.P.

The passing of a legal giant.

Harvard law professor Richard Fallon passed away Sunday. He was an incredibly important and influential scholar and thinker. He was 73.

The Harvard Crimson reports:

A leading scholar in constitutional law, Fallon was widely regarded for his insightful, prolific academic output and his commitment to thoughtful debate.

He has written extensively about the Supreme Court and constitutional interpretation, tackling how the more than 200-year-old document applies to the country today. In 2021, he was nominated to the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States, a committee established by then-President Joe Biden to investigate legal questions and possible reforms to the Supreme Court.

"HLS can be grateful for the more than forty years in which Professor Fallon wrote, taught, mentored, counseled, and led with extraordinary distinction," Goldberg wrote in the Monday announcement of Fallon's death. "His passing leaves a hole in our community that cannot be filled."

Fallon was also remembered by former students and colleagues for his humor and his down-to-earth nature — qualities many said could be uncommon in the rarefied halls of Harvard Law School.

Cass R. Sunstein, a professor at HLS, wrote in a statement to The Crimson that Fallon combined his intellectual "brilliance" with "humility in a way I have never seen in all my years."

Larry Solum has this remembrance on the Legal Theory Blog.