Pamela Susan Karlan (born 1959) is an American legal scholar who was the principal deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from February 8, 2021, until July 1, 2022.

In a 1995 oral history with Harold Koh, Blackmun revealed that his dissent in Bowers v. Hardwick had been written primarily by Karlan.

"[6] After her clerkships, Karlan worked as an assistant counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1986 to 1988.

[7] On May 6, 2020, Facebook appointed her to its content oversight board,[11] from which she resigned in February 2021 to join the Biden administration as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.

Until 2005, she served as commissioner to help implement and enforce California's campaign finance, lobbying, and conflict of interest laws.

[15] She was mentioned as a potential candidate to replace Supreme Court Justice David Souter when he retired in 2009.

[17] In February 2021, Karlan was named a principal deputy assistant attorney general in the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.

[18] Peter Baker, a New York Times political writer, described Karlan as "a full-throated, unapologetic liberal torchbearer".