Seidman, Louis Michael 1947-

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Seidman, Louis Michael 1947-

PERSONAL:

Born February 16, 1947. Education: University of Chicago, A.B.; Harvard University Law School, J.D., 1971.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC. Office—Georgetown University Law Center, 600 New Jersey Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20001.

CAREER:

Georgetown University Law School, Washington, DC, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, 1976—. Previously served as a law clerk for DC Circuit Court Chief Judge J. Skelly Wright and for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, both in Washington, DC; and Public Defender Service, Washington, DC, staff attorney.

WRITINGS:

(With Mark V. Tushnet) Shepard's United States Supreme Court Case Commentaries: Oct. 1988 Term (sound recording), Shepard's/McGraw-Hill (Colorado Springs, CO), 1988.

(With Mark V. Tushnet) Shepard's United States Supreme Court Case Commentaries: Oct. 1987 Term (sound recording), Shepard's/McGraw-Hill (Colorado Springs, CO), 1988.

(With Mark V. Tushnet) Remnants of Belief: Contemporary Constitutional Issues, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1996.

(Legal advisor) Great and Extraordinary Occasions: Developing Guidelines for Constitutional Change, Century Foundation Press (New York, NY), 1999.

Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2001.

Constitutional Law: Equal Protection of the Laws, Foundation Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Silence and Freedom, Stanford Law and Politics (Stanford, CA), 2007.

Contributor to numerous books and journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Fordham Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, Law and Contemporary Problems, Marshall Law Review, and Graven Images.

SIDELIGHTS:

Louis Michael Seidman was educated at the University of Chicago, where he earned his undergraduate degree. He continued his education at Harvard University Law School, graduating in 1971. Following law school, Seidman served as a law clerk for both J. Skelly Wright, Chief Judge of the DC Circuit Court, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. He then went on to work briefly as a staff attorney for the Public Defender Service in Washington, DC. In 1976, Seidman accepted a position on the faculty of the Georgetown University School of Law, where he was eventually named the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law. Seidman has contributed chapters and articles to numerous books and journals, including the Harvard Law Review, Fordham Law Review, Marshall Law Review, University of Chicago Law Review, and Law and Contemporary Problems. He has also written a number of books on law and the U.S. Constitution, including Remnants of Belief: Contemporary Constitutional Issues, which he wrote with Mark V. Tushnet, Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review, Constitutional Law: Equal Protection of the Laws, and Silence and Freedom.

In Our Unsettled Constitution, Seidman takes a fresh approach to understanding the document that has provided the backbone for the governing system of the United States for over two hundred years. Seidman reminds readers that the Constitution rarely changes, and yet case after case reaches for the document as a means of settling arguments and in many instances are able to find a new and different way of interpreting the work to fit the circumstances. He discusses not only the flexibility of the Constitution, but that of the lawyers and judges who are able to read its pages and find new angles and ideas. Stephen K. Shaw, in a review for Library Journal, dubbed Seidman's effort an "insightful book," and concluded that the "core thesis concerning the political ramifications, of judicial review must be encountered."

Silence and Freedom looks at the right of a United States citizen to silence, which refers to their right to withhold testimony during a trial to avoid self-incrimination, the right to refrain from responding during a police interrogation, or something as simple as refusing to participate in an active Pledge of Allegiance. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly found the book a bit over the heads of average readers, stating it "sometimes feels like a debate between the dormitory existentialist and the sophomore who proves free will doesn't exist."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Catholic University Law Review, January 1, 1990, "Domination, Democracy, and the District: The Statehood Position," p. 417.

Choice, July 1, 2002, J.R. Vile, review of Our Unsettled Constitution: A New Defense of Constitutionalism and Judicial Review.

Common Law World Review, March 22, 2004, Julian Rivers, review of Our Unsettled Constitution, p. 192.

Constitutional Commentary, March 22, 1998, William K. Kelley, review of Constitutional Law: Equal Protection of the Laws, p. 161; December 22, 2002, Brannon P. Denning, review of Our Unsettled Constitution, p. 781.

Georgetown Law Journal, February 1, 1997, Neal Devins, review of Remnants of Belief: Contemporary Constitutional Issues, p. 691.

Indiana Law Review, June 22, 1997, Paul E. McGreal, review of Remnants of Belief, p. 693.

Library Journal, January 1, 2002, Stephen K. Shaw, review of Our Unsettled Constitution, p. 127.

Political Studies, December 1, 2002, Fred Nash, review of Our Unsettled Constitution, p. 995.

Publishers Weekly, June 25, 2007, review of Silence and Freedom, p. 49.

Reference & Research Book News, February 1, 2008, review of Silence and Freedom.

Seattle University Law Review, March 22, 1998, Sharon Elizabeth Rush, review of Constitutional Law, p. 973.

UCLA Law Review, June 1, 1997, Eric J. Segall, review of Remnants of Belief, p. 1467.

Virginia Law Review, February 1, 1997, Steven G. Calabresi, review of Remnants of Belief, p. 247.