Rob Natelson

Robert G. “Rob” Natelson is widely acknowledged to be the country’s leading scholar on the Constitution's amendment procedure, and among the leaders on several other topics.

Robert G. “Rob” Natelson is widely acknowledged to be the country’s leading scholar on the Constitution's amendment procedure, and among the leaders on several other topics. He is  the author of The Original Constitution: What It Actually Said and Meant (Apis Books, 3d ed., 2014) and co-author of The Origins of the Necessary and Proper Clause (Cambridge University Press, 2010), a book based primarily on his groundbreaking research. He is also a senior fellow in Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Independence Institute and at the Montana Policy Institute. He was law professor for a quarter of a century, serving at three different universities. He is best known for his studies of the Constitution’s original understanding, and for bringing formerly neglected sources of evidence to the attention of constitutional scholars.

Natelson has been cited 17 times in U.S. Supreme Court decisions since 2013. Parts of Chief Justice Roberts’ 2012 opinion on the “Obamacare” health care law closely tracked his original research on the Necessary and Proper Clause. His academic publications are almost too numerous to list. In addition to his articles on the U.S. Constitution, he created the first online guide to “originalist” research (now partly duplicated here); created the database the Documentary History of the Ratification of the Montana Constitution; and in conjunction with his eldest daughter Rebecca, edited the first complete Internet versions of the Emperor Justinian's great Roman law collection (in Latin).

Prior to entering academia he practiced law in two states, ran his own businesses, and worked as a journalist and at other jobs. While serving as a professor he created and hosted Montana's first statewide commercial radio talk show.