Charles W. “rocky” Rhodes

Biography

Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes is the Vinson & Elkins LLP Research Professor and Professor of Law at South Texas College of Law Houston. His teaching and scholarship is centered on the United States Constitution, state constitutions, and civil procedure. He is the author or co-author of four textbooks and treatises on constitutional law and state constitutional law, including The Texas Constitution in State and Nation: Comparative State Constitutional Law in the Federal System; Skills & Values: The First Amendment; and Questions & Answers: Constitutional Law. His writings also include more than thirty journal articles and book supplements and chapters on a wide variety of constitutional and procedural issues, such as free speech protections, due process rights, state constitutionalism, constitutional interpretation, judicial appointments, personal jurisdiction, federal practice and procedure, mandamus proceedings, and appellate procedure. His articles, books, and chapters have been cited hundreds of times in judicial decisions, treatises, textbooks, law journals, and legal briefs. He is a frequent media commentator, including television and radio appearances on CNN, NPR’s Morning Edition, BBC Radio’s World Business News, NPR’s Day to Day, and Bloomberg Radio, along with interviews in newspapers and magazines across the United States, such as the Washington Post, USA Today, American Lawyer, Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Times, ABA Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Examiner, and Houston Chronicle. He earned his undergraduate degree summa cum laude while on a National Merit Scholarship at Baylor University before enrolling at Baylor Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Baylor Law Review, the President’s Award recipient as the outstanding third-year student, and valedictorian of his graduating law school class. Before becoming a professor, he served as a briefing attorney for Justice Raul Gonzalez and as a staff attorney for Justice Greg Abbott at the Supreme Court of Texas, practiced appellate law at the national law firm now known as Locke Lord LLP, and earned his board certification in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.

Research Interest

Constitutional Law Federal and State Civil Procedure Federal Courts and Jurisdiction Texas Constitutional Law