Caitlin and Jack Ferguson, both distinguished graduates of the University of Notre Dame and former Tocqueville Fellows, are building promising careers in the legal field after graduating from Notre Dame. Jack, a 2020 graduate, studied in the Program of Liberal Studies (PLS) with a minor in constitutional studies and lived in Duncan Hall. Caitlin, a 2021 graduate, double-majored in PLS and history and was a resident of Flaherty Hall. After completing their undergraduate studies, Jack attended Notre Dame Law School, while Caitlin pursued her legal education at the University of Chicago Law School. In the midst of their legal studies, Caitlin (née Fennelly) and Jack were married in the summer of 2022.
Reflecting on their time at Notre Dame, both Caitlin and Jack emphasize how the Tocqueville Fellowship Program played a formative role in their intellectual and professional development. Jack recalls a particularly influential experience: “As a Tocqueville Fellow, I participated in a weekend seminar on religious liberty law with two federal judges. It was a great first chance to start understanding how the law works and how courts work. And it got me thinking about law school.”
The Tocqueville Fellowship provided them with invaluable opportunities to engage with visiting scholars, journalists, and judges, while also fostering friendships with like-minded students who shared their interest in the big questions of politics, law, and philosophy. “It very much fulfilled that goal,” they note, adding that they remain close with many of their fellow Tocqueville scholars to this day.
Currently, both Caitlin and Jack are clerking on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Looking ahead, the couple will be moving to Washington, D.C., where Caitlin will clerk on the Supreme Court of the United States and Jack will clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Jack’s academic work continues to reflect his deep engagement with political philosophy and constitutionalism: “I wrote my senior thesis about Cicero's influence on Alexander Hamilton after taking several classes that covered classical philosophy and constitutional history. I kept thinking about Cicero and Hamilton in law school and began noticing how often early American lawyers and judges (like James Wilson, John Adams, and Joseph Story) took inspiration from Cicero's legal writings. So I decided to write something on the subject and put the article together.”
His law review article, The Ciceronian Origins of American Law and Constitutionalism, builds on those early interests and has garnered significant recognition from his former professors at Notre Dame and the wider legal community. Jack was awarded the 2024 Brown Award for Excellence in Legal Writing for the paper. Additionally, he was awarded the University of Chicago Federalist Society’s Eaton Award while still in law school for another one of his pieces of writing focused on the concept of “stipulated law” and constitutional questions.
For Caitlin, a passion for legal writing and analysis shaped her path toward clerking: “Clerking involves a lot of writing. I've always enjoyed writing, and I worked on improving my writing during college. There were plenty of opportunities for research papers in history and PLS, and I tried to make the most of them.”
When asked about advice for current students interested in law, public service, or academia, the Fergusons kept it simple: “Take a class with Professor Muñoz. And work on your writing! One of the best ways to do that is to read good writers.”
As Dr. Don Stelluto, the Co-Director of the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government, emphasized “Caitlin and Jack exemplify the Tocqueville Fellowship Program’s mission to educate and mentor future leaders in law and public service. Their respective journeys, from Notre Dame’s classrooms to some of the nation’s most prestigious judicial chambers, reflect the deep engagement with substantive ideas and their commitment to contribute, qualities that we encourage in our students. Their story is a beautiful example of the intellectual curiosity, creativity, and dedication we seek to foster through the Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government. I hope that their story will inspire our current and future students to likewise dream big about their undergraduate experiences and to engage deeply with the study of law, constitutionalism, and civic responsibility.”
To learn more about the Tocqueville Fellowship Program, visit our website.