Michael J. Klarman (born 1959) is an American legal historian and scholar of constitutional law.

[7] After his graduation from law school, he clerked for then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she was on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

[10] He contends that the Supreme Court of the United States has historically been hostile to the rights of minorities and has not consistently enforced constitutional protections for them.

Klarman argues that civil rights protections arise out of social mores from which the court takes its cue.

[1][4] Klarman has also defended political process theory as a method of constitutional interpretation.