Amy C. Gaudion

Associate Professor of Law

Email acg14@psu.edu
Phone 717-240-5216
Curriculum Vitae Download/View CV
SSRN SSRN Profile

Expertise

Education

J.D., summa cum laude, Order of the Coif, Villanova University School of Law
B.A., with distinction, University of Virginia

Biography

Amy C. Gaudion is an associate professor of law and the founder of Dickinson Law’s annual cyberspace simulation with the U.S. Army War College. Her scholarship sits at the intersection of constitutional law, national security and homeland security law, and civil-military relations. Professor Gaudion’s current projects explore flaws in the structural provisions of the U.S. Constitution relating to the exercise of national security powers and propose alternatives to the conventional checking and oversight mechanisms. Another thread of her scholarship focuses on the homeland security threats posed by low civic education and civic engagement levels and considers the role to be played by law schools and legal educators in countering such threats through the development of educational partnerships and curricular innovations.

Professor Gaudion is the author of The Homeland Security Legal Architecture Before 9/11, in Foundations of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: Law and Policy (Martin J. Alperen ed., 3d ed. forthcoming 2023) (Wiley) and Defending Your Country . . . and Gender – Legal Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Women in the Military, in Women, Law and Culture: Conformity, Contradiction and Conflict (Jocelynne A. Scutt ed., 2016) (Palgrave Macmillan). Her work has appeared in scholarly journals as well as the War Room Blog, The New York Times and The Daily Beast.

Professor Gaudion teaches courses in the areas of constitutional law, national security law, cyberspace law and policy, legal analysis and writing, and legislation and statutory interpretation. She structures her courses to include a mix of doctrinal components, interdisciplinary projects, and exercises designed to simulate the practice of law. She established and leads an annual cyberspace simulation with the U.S. Army War College, in which students work on interdisciplinary teams representing nation-states, non-governmental entities and the private sector to resolve a complex international cyberspace dispute. Her courses also include oral briefings, statutory drafting exercises, blog post assignments, group projects with students from other fields and disciplines, and mock panel presentations to government entities. These unconventional components are designed to give students concrete examples of how lawyers further the public’s understanding of our constitutional democracy as navigators of complicated legal frameworks, as advocates for access, and as conduits for improvement of the law.

Professor Gaudion serves as the faculty advisor for the law school’s Military Law Caucus and National Security Law Association as well as its certificate programs in Government Affairs/National Security Law and Cyber, Privacy and Data Security. She served as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs from 2017-2023. Prior to joining Dickinson Law, she clerked in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and worked as an associate at Hanley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin. She earned a J.D. from the Villanova University School of Law, receiving summa cum laude and Order of the Coif honors, and a B.A. from the University of Virginia, graduating with distinction. She is an ardent fan of the Philadelphia Phillies.

Constitutional Law I
Cybersecurity Law & Policy Seminar
Cyberspace Law & Policy Simulation
Foundations of Space Power (co-taught with U.S. Army War College faculty)
Legal Analysis & Writing I
Legislation & Statutory Interpretation
National Security Law
National Security Simulation

Discord and the Pentagon’s Watch Dog: Countering Violent Extremism in the U.S. Military, Indiana Law Journal (forthcoming 2025)

National Security Law & the Constitution (3d ed. Aspen, forthcoming 2025) (with Geoffrey S. Corn, Jimmy Gurulé, Jeffrey D. Kahn, and Gary Corn)

Auditing the U.S. Government’s Vulnerability Stockpile, 27 Virginia Journal of Law & Technology 40 (2024).

Amy C. Gaudion, The Homeland Security Legal Architecture Before 9/11, in Foundations of Homeland Security and Emergency Management: Law and Policy (Martin J. Alperen ed., 3d ed. forthcoming 2023) (Wiley)

Answering the Cyber Oversight Call, 54 Loyola University Chicago Law Journal 139 (2022)

Exploring Race and Racism in the Law School Curriculum: An Administrator’s View on Adopting an Antiracist Curriculum, 23 Rutgers Race & the Law Review 131 (2022)

Review: This Is How They Tell Me the World Ends: The Cyberweapons Arms Race (2020) by Nicole Perlroth, 126 Dickinson Law Review 561 (2022)

Amy C. Gaudion, with Ben Leitzel and Greg Hillebrand, Cyberspace Operations Policy and Law Case Study, in Air Force Cyber College Case Study Program (2022) (The case study was selected for the Air Force Cyber College’s Cyber Case Study Program, a three-part workshop series focused on developing a dilemma case study for educational use in advancing the understanding of cyber law, policy and operations. It was awarded 3rd place and designated as an “Important Case.”)

It’s Time to Reform the U.S. Vulnerabilities Equities Process (VEP), War Room Blog (Sept. 2, 2021)

Recognizing the Role of Inspectors General in the U.S. Government’s Cybersecurity Restructuring Task, 9 Belmont Law Review 180 (2021) (solicited for symposium volume)

Amy C. Gaudion, Defending Your Country . . . and Gender – Legal Challenges and Opportunities Confronting Women in the Military, in Women, Law and Culture: Conformity, Contradiction and Conflict (Jocelynne A. Scutt ed., 2016) (Palgrave Macmillan)

The Power of the Veep (with Doug Stuart), N.Y. Times (July 22, 2012), at SR 3

More Than Just a Running Mate (with Doug Stuart), N.Y. Times Campaign Stops Blog (July 19, 2012)

War on Terror’s Next Phase: The Legal & Strategic Consequences (with P.J. Crowley), DailyBeast.com (June 23, 2012)

Chair, American Association of Law Schools Section on National Security Law (2023)

Founder & Lead, Annual Joint Cyberspace Exercise with U.S. Army War College (2018 – present)

Faculty Advisor, Certificate in Government Affairs, National Security Law Concentration (2017 – present)

Faculty Advisor, Certificate in Cyber, Information Privacy (2021 – present)

Presenter and Moderator, Race and Equal Protection of the Laws (2020-present)

Developer & Coordinator, Penn State Dickinson Law’s Legal Educators Workshop Series (2020-2022)

“Auditing the U.S. Government’s Cyber Stockpile,” Privacy Law Scholars Conference, University of Colorado Law School, May 2023 (presenter)

“Tattooed Servicemembers and the Pentagon’s Watch Dog: Countering Violence Extremism in the U.S. Military,” National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, March 2023 (presenter)

“Auditing the U.S. Government’s Cyber Stockpile,” New Voices in Administrative Law Workshop, Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Schools, January 2023 (presenter)

Privacy and Cybersecurity in National Security: Developments and Prospects, Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Schools, January 7, 2023 (featuring Professor Asaf Lubin of Indiana University Maurer School of Law, Professor Margaret Hu of William & Mary Law School, and Professor Anupam Chander of Georgetown Law (moderator)

Voices in National Security Law, Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Schools, January 2023 (moderator)

The January 6 Insurrection: Domestic Terrorism and National Security Issues, Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Schools, January 2022 (panelist)

“Answering the Cyber Oversight Call,” Cybersecurity Law & Policy Scholars Conference, University of Minnesota Law School, October 2021 (presenter and discussant)

Constitution Day 2021: Evaluating the Role of the Lawyer in the U.S. Constitutional System after the 2020 Presidential Election, Penn State Dickinson Law Center for Government Law and Public Policy Studies, September 2021 (panelist)

“Answering the Cyber Oversight Call,” 49th Annual Research Conference on Communications, Information, and Internet Policy, TPRC, September 2021 (panelist)

Shifting the Oversight Lens on Cyberspace Operations, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, part of 2021-2022 Lecture Series on Cyber War, September 2021 (presenter)

Administrative Law Works-in-Progress, 2021 Annual Conference of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools, July 2021 (presenter)

National Security Law Junior Scholars Workshop, University of Florida Levin College of Law, July 2021 (presenter)

National Security Seminar (one-week program), U.S. Army War College, June 2021 (invited attendee)

Rutgers Race & the Law Review Symposium: Building an Anti-racist Curriculum, Rutgers University, April 2021 (panelist)

Enhanced Cyber Capabilities, a Call for Oversight, and the Department of Defense Inspector General, Belmont Law Review Symposium: Contemporary Issues in Administrative Law, Belmont University School of Law, January 2021 (panelist)

Law School Logistics in the COVID-19 World: Faculty + Staff Wellness, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah, July 2020 (panelist)

Thought Paper: National Security, Satellites, and “The Rising River of Digital Metadata”, National Security Law Workshop, Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia, October 2019 (presenter)

Responding to Atrocity Crimes: The American Experience, Penn State Dickinson Law, October 2019 (panelist)

Tabletop Exercise on Opioid Crisis Response and Resilience, hosted by Penn State Center for Security Research and Education, Penn State Harrisburg/Penn State Homeland Security Programs, Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency (PEMA), Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, and Pennsylvania Department of Health, held at PEMA Headquarters, September 2019 (presenter and commentator)

The Role of Satellites and Smart Devices: Data Surprises and Security, Privacy, and Regulatory Challenges, Privacy Law Scholars Conference, May 2019 (presenter, with Anne Toomey McKenna)

The Role of Satellites and Smart Devices: Data Surprises and Security, Privacy, and Regulatory Challenges, Penn State Law Review Symposium: The Big Data Revolution and Its Impact on the Law, Penn State Law, March 2019 (panelist, with Anne Toomey McKenna and Jenni L. Evans)

Cybersecurity and Data Privacy: Equifax, the VEP, and CISA, Penn State Dickinson Law, September 2017 (panelist)

Breaking Issue — iPhone vs. the FBI: Government Surveillance in the Post-Snowden Era, The Clarke Forum on Contemporary Issues, Dickinson College, April 2016 (panelist)

Apple vs. FBI, Penn State Dickinson Law, April 2016 (moderator)

U.S. War Powers, The Clarke Forum on Contemporary Issues, Dickinson College, February 2015 (panelist)

Beyond Print: New Models for Scholarly Publishing in Law, Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Libraries, July 2014 (panelist)

Law Review Symposium: The Constitutionality and Consequences of America’s Use of Drones and the NSA Spying Program, Western State Law Review, Western State University College of Law, April 2014 (panelist)

Snowden Reflections, The Clarke Forum on Contemporary Issues, Dickinson College, March 2014 (panelist)

Legality of Military Drones on Trial, Smart Talk with Scott Lamar, WITF radio broadcast, June 23, 2015 (guest)

The Evolving Vice Presidency, RadioTimes with Marty Moss-Coane (WHYY radio broadcast, October 11, 2012) (guest)

After Bin Laden: Stuxnet, Drones and the New Middle East, World Affairs Council of Harrisburg, Elizabethtown College, September 2012 (panelist)

January 2025

14 Penn State Dickinson Law Scholars Present at 2025 AALS Annual Meeting

Amy C. Gaudion

Expertise

Education

Biography

Legal Statements