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Laurence Henry Tribe (born in Shanghai
Shanghai

Shanghai is the List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population in China and one of the List of metropolitan areas by population in the world, with over 20 million people....
, October 10, 1941) is a professor of constitutional law
Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations.Constitutions are the framework for government and may limit or define the authority and procedure of political bodies to execute new laws and regulations....
 at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, it is the United States' oldest law school in continuous operation....
 and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor. He also serves as a consultant for the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP was founded in Dallas in 1945 by Robert Schwarz Strauss and Richard Gump. The firm now numbers more than 900 attorneys and advisors in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East....
.

Tribe is generally recognized as one of the foremost constitutional law scholars 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.






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Laurence Henry Tribe (born in Shanghai
Shanghai

Shanghai is the List of cities in the People's Republic of China by population in China and one of the List of metropolitan areas by population in the world, with over 20 million people....
, October 10, 1941) is a professor of constitutional law
Constitutional law

Constitutional law is the study of foundational or basic laws of nation states and other political organizations.Constitutions are the framework for government and may limit or define the authority and procedure of political bodies to execute new laws and regulations....
 at Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, it is the United States' oldest law school in continuous operation....
 and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor. He also serves as a consultant for the law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP was founded in Dallas in 1945 by Robert Schwarz Strauss and Richard Gump. The firm now numbers more than 900 attorneys and advisors in the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East....
.

Tribe is generally recognized as one of the foremost constitutional law scholars 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 34 times.

Biography


Education

Tribe attended Abraham Lincoln High School
Abraham Lincoln High School (San Francisco)

for schools of the same name.Abraham Lincoln High School is a California Distinguished School, fully accredited comprehensive public high school located in the Sunset District of San Francisco, California....
 in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in California and the List of United States cities by population in the United States, with a 2007 estimated population of 799,183....
. He holds an A.B. in Mathematics
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
, summa cum laude from Harvard College
Harvard College

Harvard College is the undergraduate section and oldest school of Harvard University, a private university in the United States founded in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature....
 (1962), and a J.D.
Juris Doctor

Juris Doctor is a first professional degree graduate degree and professional doctorate in law degree. The degree was first awarded by Harvard University in the United States in the late 19th century as a degree similar to the old European doctor of law degree and the legal studies counterpart to the M.D....
, magna cum laude from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School

Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, it is the United States' oldest law school in continuous operation....
 (1966). Tribe was a champion policy debate
Policy debate

Policy debate is a form of speech team in which teams of two advocate for and against a resolution that typically calls for policy change by the United States Federal Government....
r at Harvard, and later a college coach and high school summer institute teacher.

Career

Tribe served as a law clerk
Law clerk

A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person who provides assistance to a judge in Legal research issues before the court and in writing Legal opinion....
 to Matthew Tobriner on the California Supreme Court from 1966-67, and as a law clerk
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States

Law clerks have assisted Supreme Court Justices in various capacities since the first one was hired by Justice Horace Gray in the 1880s. By the traditions and rules that have developed around this procedure today Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States on the Supreme Court of the United States have the opportunity to select four...
 to Potter Stewart
Potter Stewart

Potter Stewart was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court of the United States Supreme Court. On the Court, he made major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and fourth amendment jurisprudence, among other areas....
 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
Al Gore

Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is an United States environmentalism activist who served as the List of Vice Presidents of the United States Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President of the United States Bill Clinton....
 during the disputed U.S. presidential election, 2000. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Tribe's client in Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick

Bowers v. Hardwick, , was a Supreme Court of the United States decision that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law that criminalized oral sex and anal sex in private between consenting adults....
 in 1986, holding that a Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a U.S. state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against United Kingdom rule in the American Revolution....
 state law criminalizing sodomy
Sodomy

Sodomy is a term used today predominantly in law to describe the act of anal intercourse, oral intercourse, as well as bestiality. When used in a religious context, it has a negative connotation....
, as applied to consensual acts between persons of the same sex, did not violate fundamental liberties under the principle of substantive due process
Due process

Due process is the principle that the government must respect all of the legal rights that are owed to a person according to the law of the land, instead of respecting merely some or most of those legal rights....
. However, he was vindicated in 2003, when the Supreme Court overruled Bowers in Lawrence v. Texas
Lawrence v. Texas

Lawrence v. Texas, Case citation , was a landmark Supreme Court of the United States case. In the 6-3 ruling, the List of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United Statess struck down the sodomy law in Texas....
. He wrote the ACLU's amicus curiae
Amicus curiae

Amicus curiae or amicus curi? is a legal Latin phrase, literally translated as "friend of the court", that refers to someone, not a party to a case, who volunteers to offer information on a point of law or some other aspect of the case to assist the court in deciding a matter before it....
 brief supporting Lawrence, who was represented by Lambda Legal
Lambda Legal

Lambda Legal is a United States civil rights organization that focuses on Homosexuality, lesbians, Bisexuality, transgender people and those with HIV through impact litigation, education, and public policy work....
.

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
Federalist Society

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, most frequently called simply the Federalist Society, is an organization of conservatives and libertarians seeking reform of the current Law of the United States in accordance with an Originalism....
.

He actively supported the candidacy of President
President of the United States

The President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition....
 Barack Obama
Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the List of Presidents of the United States and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office....
, and describes Obama as "the best student I ever had." Alongside Harvard's Cass Sunstein
Cass Sunstein

Cass R. Sunstein is an United States law scholar, particularly in the fields of constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, and law and behavioral economics....
, Tribe served as judicial adviser to Obama's campaign
Barack Obama presidential campaign, 2008

Barack Obama, then United States Senate#Seniority United States United States Senate from Illinois, announced his candidacy for President of the United States in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007....
.

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
University of Virginia

The University of Virginia is a public university research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, founded by Thomas Jefferson. Conceived by 1800 and established in 1819, it is the only university in the United States to be designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, an honor it shares with nearby Monticello....
 political scientist. On April 13, 2005, Harvard's President Lawrence Summers
Lawrence Summers

Lawrence Henry "Larry" Summers is an American economist and the head of the White House's National Economic Council for President Barack Obama....
 and Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan
Elena Kagan

Elena Kagan is Dean of Harvard Law School and Charles Hamilton Houston Professor of Law at Harvard University. She was previously a professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School....
 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."

Family

Tribe has two children, Mark
Mark Tribe

Mark Tribe is an artist and curator interested art, technology, and politics. He is an Assistant Professor of Modern Culture and Media at Brown University and the co-author of New Media Art ....
 and Kerry, who are both internationally recognized visual artists.

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:
Case Citation Year Outcome
Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia 1981 win
Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness 1981 loss
Crawford v. Board of Education 1982 loss
Larkin v. Grendel’s Den 1982 win
White v. Massachusetts Council 1983 win
Pacific Gas & Electric v. California 1983 win
Hawaii Housing Auth. v. Midkiff 1984 win
Northeast Bancorp v. Fed. Reserve 1985 win
Board of Education v. National Gay Task Force 1985 win
Fisher v. City of Berkeley 1986 win
Bowers v. Hardwick
Bowers v. Hardwick

Bowers v. Hardwick, , was a Supreme Court of the United States decision that upheld the constitutionality of a Georgia sodomy law that criminalized oral sex and anal sex in private between consenting adults....
 		 1986 loss
Pennzoil v. Texaco 1986 win
Schweiker v. Chilicky
Schweiker v. Chilicky

Schweiker v. Chilicky, Case citation , was a Supreme Court of the United States decision that established limitations on implied causes of action....
 		 1988 loss
Granfinanciera v. Nordberg 1989 loss
Sable Communications v. FCC 1989 draw
Adams Fruit v. Barrett 1990 win
Rust v. Sullivan
Rust v. Sullivan

Rust v. Sullivan, Case citation , was a Supreme Court of the United States case decided in 1991. The case concerned the legality and constitutionality of Department of Health and Human Services regulations on the use of funds spent by the U.S....
 		 1991 loss
Cipollone v. Liggett 1992 win
TXO v. Alliance Resources 1993 win
Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg 1994 loss
U.S. v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone 1996 draw
Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party 1997 loss
Vacco v. Quill
Vacco v. Quill

Vacco v. Quill, Case citation , is a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States regarding the right to die. It ruled that a New York ban on physician-assisted suicide was constitutional, and preventing doctors from assisting their patients, even those terminally ill and/or in great pain, was a legitimate state interest th...
 		 1997 loss
Amchem Products v. Windsor 1997 win
Baker v. General Motors 1998 win
AT&T v. Iowa Utilities Board 1999 loss
Ortiz v. Fibreboard 1999 win
Bush v. Gore I
Bush v. Gore

Bush v. Gore, , was a Supreme Court of the United States case decided on December 12, 2000. The case effectively resolved the United States presidential election, 2000 in favor of George W....
 		 2000 loss
New York Times Co. v. Tasini
New York Times Co. v. Tasini

New York Times Co. v. Tasini, Case citation#United States , is a leading decision by the United States Supreme Court on the issue of copyright in the contents of a newspaper database....
 		 2001 loss
U.S. v. United Foods 2001 win
FCC v. NextWave 2002 win
State Farm v. Campbell
State Farm v. Campbell

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. v. Campbell, Case citation , was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the due process clause usually limits punitive damage awards to less than ten times the size of the compensatory damages awarded....
 		 2003 loss
Nike v. Kasky 2003 loss
Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association 2005 loss


Tribe has argued 26 cases in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals:
Case Citation Circuit Year Outcome
Worldwide Church of God v. California 9th Cir. 1980 loss
Grendel's Den v. Goodwin 1st Cir. 1981 win
Pacific Legal Foundation v. State Energy Resources 9th Cir. 1981 win
U.S. v. Sun Myung Moon
Sun Myung Moon tax fraud and conspiracy case

In 1982, Sun Myung Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church, was imprisoned in the United States after being found guilty by a jury of willfully filing false Federal income tax returns and conspiracy ....
 		 718 F.2d 1210 2d Cir. 1983 loss
Romany v. Colegio de Abogados 742 F.2d 32 1st Cir. 1984 win
Westmoreland v. CBS 752 F.2d 16 2d Cir. 1984 loss
Colombrito v. Kelly 2d Cir. 1985 win
Texaco v. Pennzoil 2d Cir. 1986 loss
U.S. v. Bank of New England 1st Cir. 1987 loss
U.S. v. Gallo 2d Cir. 1988 loss
U.S. v. GAF Corporation 884 F.2d 670 2d Cir. 1989 loss
U.S. v. Western Electric Company 900 F.2d 283 D.C. Cir. 1999 win
Fineman v. Armstrong World Industries 980 F.2d 171 D.C. Cir. 1992 draw
U.S. v. Western Electric Company 993 F.2d 1572 D.C. Cir. 1993 win
Lightning Lube v. Witco Corporation 4 F.3d 1153 3d Cir. 1993 draw
Hopkins v. Dow Corning Corporation 33 F.3d 1116 9th Cir. 1994 win
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone v. U.S. 42 F.3d 181 4th Cir. 1994 win
Georgine v. Amchem Products, Inc. 3d Cir. 1996 win
BellSouth Corp. v. F.C.C. D.C. Cir. 1998 loss
SBC Communications v. F.C.C. 5th Cir. 1998 loss
City of Dallas v. F.C.C. 5th Cir. 1999 draw
U.S. West v. Tristani 10th Cir. 1999 loss
U.S. West v. F.C.C. 10th Cir. 1999 win
Southwest Voter Registration v. Shelley 9th Cir. 2003 loss
Pacific Gas and Elec. v. California 9th Cir. 2003 loss
General Electric v. E.P.A. D.C. Cir. 2004 win


Books

  • The Invisible Constitution (2008)
  • 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)


See also

  • Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates
    Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates

    Speculation abounded over potential nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States by Bill Clinton even before his presidency officially began, given the advanced ages of several justices....


External links