Theodore Shaw to Speak at Oberlin College September 17 on Constitution Day

On Monday, September 17, Oberlin College will celebrate our nation’s 2007 Constitution Day with an address by Theodore M. Shaw, director-counsel and president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the nation’s premier civil rights organization.  The title of his talk is "The equal protection clause of the Constitution:  what protection now for people of color?"
The event will include a faculty panel discussion moderated by President Marvin Krislov, and a question and answer session. The free, public program will be held at 3:30 p.m. in the West Lecture Hall, Science Center, 119 Woodland St.

Constitution Day (or Citizenship Day) is a nationwide holiday that recognizes the ratification of the United States Constitution. It is observed on September 17, the day the U.S. Constitutional Convention signed the Constitution in 1787.

Shaw joined the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) in 1982. He directed its education docket and litigated school desegregation, capital punishment, and other civil rights cases throughout the country. In 1987, he established LDF's western regional office in Los Angeles, and served as its western regional counsel. In 1990, he left LDF to join the faculty of the University of Michigan Law School, where he taught constitutional law, civil procedure, and civil rights. In 1993, on a leave-of-absence from Michigan, he rejoined LDF as associate director-counsel.

Shaw was lead counsel in a coalition that represented African-American and Latino student intervenors in the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions case. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court heard that case, along with another challenging the use of affirmative action at the University of Michigan Law School. The Court ruled in favor of diversity as a compelling state interest.

Shaw graduated from Wesleyan University with honors and from the Columbia University School of Law. Upon graduation, he worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1979 until 1982. He litigated civil rights cases throughout the country at the trial and appellate levels and in the U.S. Supreme Court. Shaw resigned from the Justice Department in protest of the Reagan administration's civil rights policies.

Shaw has testified before Congress and before state legislatures on numerous occasions. He has been a frequent guest on television and radio programs, and he has published numerous newspaper, magazine, and law review articles. He also has traveled widely and lectured extensively on civil and human rights.

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