Laurence Tribe

Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. He also works with the firm Massey & Gail LLP on a variety of matters.^[3]

Tribe is widely recognized as a leading liberal scholar of constitutional law.^[4] He is the author of American Constitutional Law (1978), a treatise in that field, and has argued before the United States Supreme Court 35 times.^[5]

Early life and education [edit]

Tribe was born in Shanghai, China, the son of Paulina (née Diatlovitsky) and George Israel Tribe.^[6] His parents were Ashkenazi Jews. His father was from Poland and his mother was born in Harbin, to a family of immigrants from Eastern Europe.^[7][8] He was raised in the French Quarter of Shanghai.^[7] He 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), where he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. Tribe won the intercollegiate National Debate Tournament in 1961 and coached the Harvard debating team to another national championship in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

Career [edit]

This section requires expansion. (April 2012)

Tribe served as a law clerk to Mathew 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.^{[citation needed]}

The Supreme Court ruled against Tribe's client in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986 and held 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 curiae brief supporting Lawrence, who was represented by Lambda Legal.

In 2004, Tribe admitted he had failed to attribute several specific phrases and a sentence in his 1985 book, God Save this Honorable Court, to a 1974 book by Henry Abraham.^[9][10] After an investigation, Tribe was reprimanded for "a significant lapse in proper academic practice" but concluded that Tribe's error was unintentional.^{[11][dead link]}

Tribe represented General Electric in its defense against its liability under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act ("Superfund"), in which GE and Tribe unsuccessfully argued that the act unconstitutionally violated General Electric's due process rights.^[12]

On May 22, 2013, he was presented with an honorary doctorate, Doctor of Letters, from Columbia University during the Class of 2013 commencment.

Political involvement [edit]

Tribe is noted for his extensive support of liberal legal causes. He is one of the co-founders of the liberal American Constitution Society, the law and policy organization formed to counter the conservative Federalist Society, and is one of a number of scholars at Harvard Law School who have expressed their support for animal rights.^[13] Tribe argued one case for Al Gore during the disputed 2000 U.S. presidential election.

Tribe actively supported the Barack Obama presidential campaign, and described Obama as "the best student I ever had,"^[1] a sentiment previously reserved for Kathleen Sullivan.^[14]

Alongside Harvard's Cass Sunstein, Tribe served as a judicial adviser to the Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.^[15] In February 2010, he was named "Senior Counselor for Access to Justice" in the Department of Justice.^[5][16] He resigned eight months later, citing health reasons.^[17]

Personal life [edit]

Tribe has been married to Carolyn Ricarda Kreye since 1964.^[18][19] The couple has two children, Mark and Kerry, both visual artists.^{[citation needed]}

Cases [edit]

The following a list of the cases Tribe has argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, complete^{[citation needed]} as of the end of 2005:

Tribe has argued 26 cases in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals:^{[citation needed]}

Publications [edit]

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)

Articles

• 'The Curvature of Constitutional Space: What Lawyers Can Learn From Modern Physics' (1989) 103 Harvard Law Review 1

See also [edit]

• Bill Clinton Supreme Court candidates

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Laurence Tribe on Charlie Rose

• Laurence Tribe essays at ScotusBlog