Matthew Zinno

Matthew J. Zinno is a native Rhode Islander and a first-year Ph.D. student in Political Science at Brown University. He received his B.S. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland in January 2026, where he served as a research assistant in the PROMPT Lab and as an inaugural member of the Thurgood Marshall Research Fellowship. As an undergraduate student, Zinno completed multiple legislative internships for members of Congress and also served as a Cloakroom & Floor Intern for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In addition, he previously completed the Civic Leadership Fellowship at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute. Zinno’s research interest spans across American political institutions, with a particular focus on the interaction of the executive and judicial branches. His article “Executive Orders Under Judicial Scrutiny: The Role of Partisanship in Judicial Outcomes” is published in Presidential Studies Quarterly. Zinno has also published work on the legal history of affirmative action and the candidness of judicial nominees during their Senate confirmation hearings. His ongoing research examines judge shopping against the federal government, judicial review of the second Trump administration’s executive orders, hierarchical divergence within the federal judiciary, and the ideological extremity of executive orders. Zinno currently works as a research assistant in the Realizing Rights Lab and as a teaching assistant at Mount Saint Charles Academy.