Education
B.B.A., Baylor University
J.D., Baylor University School of Law

Areas of Expertise
Constitutional Law
Federal and State Civil Procedure
Federal Courts and Jurisdiction
Texas Constitutional Law

Charles W. “Rocky” Rhodes is Professor of Law and the Charles Weigel II Research Professor of State and Federal Constitutional Law at South Texas College of Law Houston. His teaching and scholarship focuses on the United States Constitution, state constitutions, and federal and state judicial power and procedure.

He is the author or co-author of six textbooks and treatises on constitutional law and state constitutional law, including The Texas Constitution in State and Nation: State Constitutional Law in the Federal System, the forthcoming textbook Constitutional Law: Foundations, Interpretations, and Commentaries, and the forthcoming two-volume treatise Rhodes & Usman on State Constitutional Law. His scholarship also includes almost forty treatise supplements, book chapters, and law review articles and essays appearing in journals such as the U.C. Davis Law Review, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Florida Law Review, Cornell Law Review Online, Tulane Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal Online, Florida State University Law Review, and American University Law Review. His writings address a wide variety of constitutional and procedural issues, such as due process rights, free speech protections, state constitutionalism, civil rights, adjudicative jurisdiction, federal court practice, conflict of laws, appellate procedure, and judicial appointments. His scholarship has been cited in forty judicial decisions and hundreds of journal articles.

He is interviewed on constitutional and procedural issues by international, national, and statewide outlets such as CNN Newsroom, NPR’s Morning Edition, BBC Radio’s World Business Report, NPR’s Day to Day, and Bloomberg Radio. He is also quoted by newspapers and magazines across the globe, including the Associated Press and Canadian Press as well as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Daily Mirror (U.K.), Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, Austin American-Statesman, Washington Times, ABA Journal, BNA U.S. Law Week, American Lawyer, and the Danish Mandag Morgen.

He earned his undergraduate degree summa cum laude while on a National Merit Scholarship at Baylor University before enrolling at Baylor Law School, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Baylor Law Review, the President’s Award recipient as the outstanding third-year student, and valedictorian of his graduating law school class. Before becoming a professor, he served as a law clerk and a staff attorney at the Supreme Court of Texas, practiced appellate law at the national law firm now known as Locke Lord LLP, and earned his board certification in Civil Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He remains actively involved in professional practice, testifying before legislatures, presenting talks to practitioners, and authoring amicus briefs on constitutional and procedural topics.