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 a 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 a co-author of National Security Law and the Constitution (3d ed. 2025) (Aspen Publishing), 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. 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 the Indiana Law Journal, the Virginial Journal of Law & Technology, and other scholarly publications, as well as the War Room Blog, New York Times, and 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.
Administrative Law
Constitutional Law I
Cybersecurity Law & Policy Seminar
Cyberspace Law & Policy Simulation
Foundations of Space Power (co-taught with U.S. Army War College faculty)
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)
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.”)
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
Editorial Board, Journal of National Security Law & Policy (2024 – present)
Executive Committee, AALS Section on National Security Law (2025 – present), co-chair (2023 & 2024)
Founder & Lead, Annual Joint Cyberspace Exercise with U.S. Army War College (2018 – present)
Presenter and Moderator, Race and Equal Protection of the Laws
Faculty Advisor, Dickinson National Security Law Association
Faculty Advisor, Military Law Caucus
Faculty Advisor, First Generation Students Organization
CALI Constitutional Law Fellow
“Dissenting Service Members,” From 1776 to Today: The Evolution of Dissent in American Law, Widener Commonwealth Law Review Symposium, March 2026 (presenter)
“Presidential Power and the Militarization of U.S. Law Enforcement,” presented to the Race & Equal Protection of the Law course at Penn State Dickinson Law, October 2025 (presenter)
A Framework for Seeing the Threats from Without and Within, presented to the Race & Equal Protection of the Law course at Penn State Dickinson Law, February 2025 (presenter)
“Discord and the Pentagon’s Watchdog: Countering Violent Extremism in the U.S. Military,” Law and Technology at the Crossroads: A Centennial Summit, Indiana Law Journal Symposium, November 2024 (presenter)
Defending Democracy: Re-focusing the National Security Lens to Examine Threats from Within, Annual Conference of the American Association of Law Schools, January 2024 (moderator)
Teaching National Security Law Workshop, hosted by the Section on National Security Law of the American Association of Law Schools, November 2023 (co-organizer, presenter & moderator)
“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 Watchdog: Countering Violent Extremism in the U.S. Military,” National Conference of Constitutional Law Scholars, University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, March 2023 (presenter)
“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)
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)
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)
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)
