Professor Mercer specializes in U.S. legal and constitutional history. His research is focused on incorporating sources and methodologies used in the humanities to help us better understand changes in law. He is particularly interested in the ways that legal institutions are influenced by external cultural forces, whether these influences come from the world of ideas, music, or even comedy. Mercer’s scholarship includes a study of a trial referred to as the fastest death penalty case in U.S. history as told through a lost Appalachian murder ballad, a project examining the interplay between free speech rights, blue laws, and vaudeville comics, and a monograph on the ways that Americans in the nineteenth century appreciated where their rights came from.

Professor Mercer offers classes on legal and constitutional history as well as teaches the Prosecution and Defense Criminal Law Externship courses. He is also responsible for the introductory law classes for students pursuing the 3+3 accelerated BA/JD program.

His book, Diminishing the Bill of Rights: Barron v. Baltimore and the Foundations of American Liberty was published by the University of Oklahoma Press and his research has appeared in the Journal of Supreme Court History, the Memphis Law Review, and Law, Culture and the Humanities.

Before coming to the University of Tennessee, Professor Mercer practiced law for fourteen years, beginning in commercial litigation and spending the remainder in legal aid.

• Education & Experience
• Publications

Ph.D., (History), 2011, University of Florida
M.A., (History), 2007, University of Florida
J.D., 1997, Stetson University College of Law
B.A., 1994, Mercer University

Curriculum Vitae

William Davenport Mercer, Diminishing the Bill of Rights: Barron v. Baltimore and the Foundations of American Liberty (University of Oklahoma Press, 2017)

Social Science Research Network (SSRN)

Full list of SSRN scholarly papers