Tuan Samahon

Professor of Law
Director of International Programs

Biography

Tuan Samahon teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, administrative law and transparency, and the federal courts. His articles have been published in the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Legal Forum, and Intelligence and National Security, among others.

Beyond his scholarship, Samahon is engaged in interpreting and fashioning constitutional and transparency law. He has served as counsel in matters relating to separation of powers, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and the Pennsylvania Right to Know Law. These cases involved the scope of presidential recess appointment power, presidential removal power, executive privilege, free exercise of religion and claims of confidentiality and national security asserted by agencies against the public’s demands for disclosure. During the 2020-2022 term, Samahon served on the National Archives and Records Administration’s FOIA Advisory Committee.

Prior to teaching, Samahon clerked for federal trial and appellate judges. He also practiced law with Covington & Burling and with a Pennsylvania litigation boutique. He remains an active member of the DC and Pennsylvania bars.  Samahon currently serves on the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board.

He has also taught constitutional and transparency law in several countries. As a Fulbright Specialist, he served as a visiting faculty member at the University of Verona, Italy; taught structural constitutional law for two quarters at Peking University’s School of Transnational Law as a visiting professor; and taught transparency and separation-of-powers law as a Fulbright scholar at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.

Samahon received his BA (cum laude with university honors) from Brigham Young University and his JD (cum laude) from Georgetown Law, where he was an olin law and economics research fellow and was co-awarded the Olin Prize in law and economics.

Practice Experience

• Judicial Clerk, U.S. District Judge Raymond Jackson on the Eastern District of Virginia 
• Judicial Clerk, U.S. Circuit Judge Jay Bybee on the Ninth Circuit
• Associate, Covington & Burling (Washington, DC)
• Of Counsel, Goldstein Law Partners, LLC (Hatfield, PA)