Laurence Tribe

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Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor. He also serves as a consultant for the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.

Tribe is generally recognized as one of the foremost constitutional law experts and Supreme Court practitioners in the United States. He is the author of American Constitutional Law (1978), the most frequently cited treatise in that field, and has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court 36 times. [1]

Contents

[edit] Education

Tribe attended Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco, California. He holds an A.B. in Mathematics, summa cum laude from Harvard College (1962), and a J.D., magna cum laude from Harvard Law School (1966). Tribe was a champion policy debater at Harvard, and later a college coach and high school summer institute teacher. He invented the modern "flow" system of recording arguments which increases the rate of speaking speed in the activity by dividing each speech into a separate column thereby making it easy for speakers to respond to their opponent's arguments.

[edit] Career

Tribe served as a law clerk to Matthew Tobriner on the California Supreme Court from 1966-67, and as a law clerk to Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967-68. He joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor in 1968, receiving tenure in 1972.

In addition to his stature as a scholar, Tribe is noted for his extensive support of liberal legal causes. He has argued many high-profile cases, including one for Al Gore during the disputed U.S. presidential election, 2000. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Tribe's client in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986, holding that a Georgia state law criminalizing sodomy, as applied to consensual acts between persons of the same sex, did not violate fundamental liberties under the principle of substantive due process. However, he was vindicated in 2003, when the Supreme Court overruled Bowers in Lawrence v. Texas. He wrote the ACLU's amicus brief supporting Lawrence, who was represented by Lambda Legal.

Tribe was considered a potential Supreme Court nominee until he testified against Robert Bork, making lasting enemies in the U.S. Senate (although he supported Anthony Kennedy who was eventually appointed in Bork's place). His protege, Kathleen Sullivan, is now thought of by many as a potential Court nominee if a Democrat takes the White House. Tribe continues to strongly support liberal political causes. He is one of the co-founders of the liberal American Constitution Society, the law and policy organization formed to counter the conservative and libertarian Federalist Society.

[edit] Critics

The October 4, 2004 issue of the Weekly Standard, a conservative political magazine, reported that a passage in Tribe's 1985 work, "God Save This Honorable Court," is identical to a passage in "Justices and Presidents", a 1974 book by Henry J. Abraham, a University of Virginia political scientist [2] [3].

On April 13, 2005, Harvard's President Lawrence Summers and Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan released a statement that Tribe's admitted failure to provide appropriate attribution was a "significant lapse in proper academic practice," but that they regarded the error as "the product of inadvertence rather than intentionality."

Critics believe Tribe is at least partially responsible for politicizing judicial nominations. In the 1980s, Tribe pushed liberal Senators to oppose the nomination of Judge Bork for the Supreme Court. Since Bork's nomination, the Supreme Court nominations have become more political.

Many Tribe defenders -- including his friend and Harvard Law colleague Alan Dershowitz -- accuse conservative detractors of having a vendetta against Tribe because his book "God Save This Honorable Court" is believed by some to have corralled the U.S. Senate into action and may have frustrated some of the judicial appointments of Ronald Reagan, including the appointment of Robert Bork, to the Supreme Court. One often heard quip among conservatives is that "God Save This Honorable Court" should have been titled "God Save This Honorable Court From Ronald Reagan."

[edit] Cases

A complete list of the 34 cases Tribe has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court as of the end of 2005 is as follows:

  1. Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia, 448 U.S. 555 (1981) (win)
  2. Heffron v. International Society for Krisha, 452 U.S. 640 (1981) /loss/
  3. Crawford v. Board of Education, 458 U.S. 527 /loss/
  4. Larkin v. Grendel’s Den, 459 U.S. 116 (1982) (win)
  5. White v. Massachusetts Council, 460 U.S. 204 (1983) (win)
  6. Pacific Gas & Electric v. California, 461 U.S. 190 (1983) (win)
  7. Hawaii Housing Auth. v. Midkiff, 467 U.S. 229 (1984) (win)
  8. Northeast Bancorp v. Fed. Reserve, 472 U.S. 159 (1985) (win)
  9. Board of Education v. National Gay Task Force, 470 U.S. 159 (1985) (win)
  10. Fisher v. City of Berkeley, 475 U.S. 260 (1986) (win)
  11. Bowers v. Hardwick, 478 U.S. 186 (1986) /loss/
  12. Pennzoil v. Texaco, 481 U.S. 1 (1986) (win)
  13. Schweiker v. Chilicky, 487 U.S. 412 (1988) /loss/
  14. Granfinanciera v. Nordberg, 492 U.S. 33 (1989) /loss/
  15. Sable Communications v. FCC, 492 U.S. 115 (1989) [draw]
  16. Adams Fruit v. Barrett, 494 U.S. 638 (1990) (win)
  17. Rust v. Sullivan, 500 U.S. 173 (1991) /loss/
  18. Cipollone v. Liggett, 505 U.S. 504 (1992) (win)
  19. TXO v. Alliance Resources, 509 U.S. 443 (1993) (win)
  20. Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg, 512 U.S. 415 (1994) /loss/
  21. U.S. v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone, 516 U.S. 415 (1996) [draw]
  22. Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party, 520 U.S. 351 (1997) /loss/
  23. Vacco v. Quill, 521 U.S. 793 (1997) /loss/
  24. Amchem Products v. Windsor, 521 U.S. 591 (1997) (win)
  25. Baker v. General Motors, 522 U.S. 222 (1998) (win)
  26. AT&T v. Iowa Utilities Board, 525 U.S. 366 (1999) /loss/
  27. Ortiz v. Fibreboard, 527 U.S. 815 (1999) (win)
  28. Bush v. Gore I, 531 U.S. 70 (2000) /loss/
  29. New York Times Co. v. Tasini, 533 U.S. 438 (2001) /loss/
  30. U.S. v. United Foods, 533 U.S. 405 (2001) (win)
  31. FCC v. NextWave, 537 U.S. 293 (2002) (win)
  32. State Farm v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408 (2003) /loss/
  33. Nike v. Kasky, 539 U.S. 654 (2003) /loss/
  34. Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association, 000 U.S. 03-1164 (2005) /loss/

Tribe has argued 26 cases in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals:

  1. Worldwide Church of God v. California, 623 F.2d 613 (9th Cir. 1980) /loss/
  2. Grendel's Den v. Goodwin, 662 F.2d 102 (1st Cir. 1981) (win)
  3. Pacific Legal Foundation v. State Energy Resources, 659 F.2d 903 (9th Cir. 1981) (win)
  4. U.S. v. Sun Myung Moon, 718 F.2d 1210 (2d Cir. 1983) /loss/
  5. Romany v. Colegio de Abogados, 742 F.2d 32 (1st Cir. 1984) (win)
  6. Westmoreland v. CBS, 752 F.2d 16 (2d Cir. 1984) /loss/
  7. Colombrito v. Kelly, 764 F.2d 122 (2d Cir. 1985) (win)
  8. Texaco v. Pennzoil, 784 F.2d 1133 (2d Cir. 1986) /loss/
  9. U.S. v. Bank of New England, 821 F.2d 844 (1st Cir. 1987) /loss/
  10. U.S. v. Gallo, 859 F.2d 1078 (2d Cir. 1988) /loss/
  11. U.S. v. GAF Corporation, 884 F.2d 670 (2d Cir. 1989) /loss/
  12. U.S. v. Western Electric Company, 900 F.2d 283 (D.C. Cir. 1999) (win)
  13. Fineman v. Armstrong World Industries, 980 F.2d 171 (D.C. Cir. 1992) [draw]
  14. U.S. v. Western Electric Company, 993 F.2d 1572 (D.C. Cir. 1993) (win)
  15. Lightning Lube v. Witco Corporation, 4 F.3d 1153 (3d Cir. 1993) [draw]
  16. Hopkins v. Dow Corning Corporation, 33 F.3d 1116 (9th Cir. 1994) (win)
  17. Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone v. U.S., 42 F.3d 181 (4th Cir. 1994) (win)
  18. Georgine v. Amchem Products, Inc., 83 F.3d 610 (3d Cir. 1996) (win)
  19. BellSouth Corp. v. F.C.C., 144 F.3d 58 (D.C. Cir. 1998) /loss/
  20. SBC Communications v. F.C.C., 154 F.3d 226 (5th Cir. 1998) /loss/
  21. City of Dallas v. F.C.C., F.3d 341 (5th Cir. 1999) [draw]
  22. U.S. West v. Tristani, 182 F.3d 1202PDF (87.5 KiB) (10th Cir. 1999) /loss/
  23. U.S. West v. F.C.C., 182 F.3d 1224PDF (218 KiB) (10th Cir. 1999) (win)
  24. Southwest Voter Registration v. Shelley, 344 F.3d 914PDF (23.0 KiB) (9th Cir. 2003) /loss/
  25. Pacific Gas and Elec. v. California, 350 F.3d 932PDF (144 KiB) (9th Cir. 2003) /loss/
  26. General Electric v. E.P.A., 360 F.3d 188PDF (49.8 KiB) (D.C. Cir. 2004) (win)

[edit] Books

  • American Constitutional Law (treatise) (1978, 1979, 1988, and 2000)
  • On Reading the Constitution (1991) (co-author with Michael Dorf)
  • Abortion: The Clash of Absolutes (1990)
  • Constitutional Choices (1985)
  • God Save This Honorable Court: How the Choice of Supreme Court Justices Shapes Our History (1985)
  • The Supreme Court: Trends and Developments (1979, 1980, 1982, 1983)
  • When Values Conflict: Essays on Environmental Analysis, Discourse, and Decision (1976) (ed.)
  • The American Presidency: Its Constitutional Structure (1974)
  • Channeling Technology Through Law (1973)
  • Environmental Protection (1971) (co-author with Louis Jaffe)
  • Technology: Processes of Assessment and Choice (1969)

[edit] Notes

    [edit] External links

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