[1] In 2008, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his work on the relationship between history and constitutional interpretation.
[2] Primus graduated from Harvard College with an A.B., summa cum laude, in social studies.
After studying law at Yale Law School, Primus clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and for United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
His maternal grandfather, Sigmund Strochlitz (1916–2006), was a Holocaust survivor and confidant of Elie Wiesel.
[4] Primus has been married to Eve Brensike, who is also a professor at the University of Michigan School of Law, since 2007.