Profile

Professor Merriam is an associate professor with a joint appointment to the Legal Studies Department and School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs. His research and teaching interests focus on national security law and constitutional law, focusing especially on constitutional issues associated with the military and military service. Professor Merriam also serves as an appellate military judge appointed to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals.

Before arriving at UCF, Professor Merriam was an assistant professor at the United States Air Force Academy, where he received the Outstanding Academy Educator Award for excellence in teaching. Prior to entering academia, Professor Merriam practiced law as an active duty judge advocate in the United States Air Force, and as an associate attorney at the international law firm K&L Gates LLP.

• Constitutional Law
• National Security Law
• Military Law
• Legal History

J.D., University of Virginia
LL.M., The George Washington University

Professor Merriam has broad research interests in the fields of national security law and constitutional law, focusing especially on constitutional issues affecting military activities, service, service members, and veterans. He has published articles in the Penn State (Dickinson) Law Review, Mississippi Law Journal, UCLA Women’s Law Journal, National Security Law Journal, Indiana Health Law Review, Air Force Reporter, and elsewhere. In 2020, Professor Merriam authored with Professor Douglas McKechnie of the United States Air Force Academy a new textbook: National Security Law (published by West Academic). Previously, with Professor Joshua Kastenberg of the University of New Mexico School of Law, Professor Merriam coauthored the book In a Time of Total War: The Federal Judiciary and the National Defense, 1940-1954, regarding the United States Supreme Court’s military law jurisprudence during World War II and the early years of the Cold War (published by Ashgate Press). In 2015, Dr. Merriam’s scholarship earned the Thomas P. Keenan, Jr. Award for the “most outstanding contribution to the development of international and military operations law” in the United States Air Force.

• Constitutional Law
• National Security Law
• Military Law
• Legal History

Regular Offerings:

• PLA 3951H, Honors Moot Court (classroom), Fall Semester
• PLA 4952, Advanced Moot Court (classroom), Fall Semester
• POS 4604, American Constitutional Law II (classroom), Spring Semester
• POS 4682, National Security Law (undergraduate, online), Spring Semester

Occasional Offerings:

• POS 6686, National Security Law (graduate seminar), Occasional Spring Semesters
• PLA 4545, Military Law and the Law of War (online), Occasional Summer Term
• POS 4603, American Constitutional Law I (online), Occasional