Laurence Tribe

Laurence Henry Tribe (born October 10, 1941) is an American legal scholar who is a University Professor Emeritus at Harvard University. He previously served as the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard Law School.

Laurence Tribe
Tribe in 2019
Born	Laurence Henry Tribe (1941-10-10) October 10, 1941 (age 81) Shanghai, China
Awards	American Philosophical Society’s Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence (2013)^[5]
Academic background
Education	Harvard University (AB, JD)
Influences	Tobriner Stewart Ely
Academic work
Discipline	Constitutional law
Notable students	Barack Obama^[1] Ted Cruz John Roberts^[2] Elena Kagan^[3] Merrick Garland^[4] Kathleen Sullivan^[1] Jamie Raskin

A constitutional law scholar,^[6][7] Tribe is co-founder of the American Constitution Society. He is also the author of American Constitutional Law (1978), a major treatise in that field, and has argued before the United States Supreme Court 36 times.^[8] Tribe was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010.^[9]

Personal life and education

Tribe was born in 1941 in Shanghai, which was then part of the Republic of China but had been taken over by the Empire of Japan in 1937 following the Battle of Shanghai. He was the son of Paulina (née Diatlovitsky) and George Israel Tribe.^[10] His family is Jewish. His father was from Poland and his mother was born in Harbin to immigrants from Eastern Europe.^[11][12][13] Tribe spent his early years in the French Concession of Shanghai before his family immigrated to the United States when he was six years old.^[11][14] His family settled in San Francisco, and he attended Abraham Lincoln High School.

After graduating from high school in 1958 at age 16, Tribe went to Harvard University, where he majored in mathematics and was a member of the Harvard Debate Team that won the intercollegiate National Debate Tournament in 1961.^[15] He graduated from Harvard in 1962 with an A.B., summa cum laude.

Tribe then received a National Science Foundation fellowship to pursue doctoral studies in mathematics at Harvard, but dropped out after one year.^[14] He decided to attend the Harvard Law School instead, where he was a member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau. He graduated from Harvard Law in 1966 with a Juris Doctor magna cum laude.

Tribe married Carolyn Ricarda Kreye in 1964. They divorced in 2008. Their two children, Mark and Kerry, are visual artists.^[16][17]

On May 22, 2013, he was presented with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Columbia University during its Class of 2013 commencement.^[18]

Career

After graduating from law school, Tribe clerked for justice Mathew Tobriner of the Supreme Court of California from 1966 to 1967, then for justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1967 to 1968. He then joined the Harvard Law School faculty as an assistant professor, receiving tenure in 1972. Among his law students and research assistants while on the faculty at Harvard have been former President Barack Obama (a research assistant for over two years),^[19] Chief Justice John Roberts,^[20] US Senator Ted Cruz,^[20] former D.C. Circuit Chief Judge and Attorney General Merrick Garland,^[20] and Associate Justice Elena Kagan.^[21] Other notable students of Tribe were U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and lead manager for the first Impeachment of Donald Trump,^[22] and Jamie Raskin, lead manager for the second Donald Trump impeachment.^[23]

In 1978, Tribe published the first version of what has become one of the core texts on its subject, American Constitutional Law. It has since been updated and expanded a number of times.^[24]

In 1983, Tribe represented Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon in the appeal of his federal conviction on income tax charges.^[13]

Tribe represented the restaurant Grendel's Den in the case Larkin v. Grendel's Den in which the restaurant challenged a Massachusetts law that allowed religious establishments to prohibit liquor sales in neighboring properties. The case reached the United States Supreme Court in 1982 and the court overturned the law as violating the separation of church and state.^[25] The Lawyer's Guide to Writing Well criticizes the opening of his brief as a "thicket of confusing citations and unnecessary definitions" stating that it would have been "measurably strengthened" if he had used the "more lively imagery" that he had used in a footnote later in the document.^[26]

In the 1985 National Gay Task Force v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, Tribe represented the National Gay Task Force who had won an Appeals Court ruling against an Oklahoma law that would have allowed schools to fire teachers who were attracted to people of the same sex or spoke in favor of civil rights for gay people. The Supreme Court deadlocked, which left the Appeals Court's favorable ruling in place, declaring the law would have violated the First Amendment.^[27]

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, in 2003 the Supreme Court overruled Bowers in Lawrence v. Texas, a case for which Tribe wrote the ACLU's amicus curiae brief supporting Lawrence, who was represented by Lambda Legal.^[27]

 

Tribe in 1987

Tribe testified at length during the Senate confirmation hearings in 1987 about the Robert Bork Supreme Court nomination, arguing that Bork's stand on the limitation of rights in the Constitution would be unique in the history of the Court.^[28] His participation in the hearings raised his profile outside of the legal realm and he became a target of right-wing critics.^[28] His phone was later found to have been wiretapped, but it was never discovered who had placed the device or why.^[28]

Tribe's 1990 book Abortion: Clash of Absolutes, was called "informative, lucidly written and cogently reasoned" in a review in the Journal of the American Bar Association.^[6]

In 1992, Tribe reargued Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc., before the Supreme Court on behalf of Cipollone.^[29]

Tribe was part of Al Gore's legal team regarding the results of the 2000 United States presidential election. Due to the close nature of the vote count, recounts had been initiated in Florida, and the recounts had been challenged in court. Tribe argued the initial case in Federal Court in Miami in which they successfully argued that the court should not stop the recount of the votes which was taking place and scheduled to take place in certain counties.^[30] David Boies argued for the Gore team in a related matter in the Florida State Courts regarding the dates that Secretary of State of Florida Katherine Harris would accept recounts.^[30] When the original Federal case, Bush v. Gore, was appealed, Gore and his advisers decided at the last minute to have Boies instead of Tribe argue the case at the Supreme Court.^[30] The court determined that recounts of votes should cease and that accordingly George W. Bush had been elected president.

Since the mid-1990s, Tribe has represented a number of corporations advocating for their free speech rights and constitutional personhood.^[31] Tribe represented General Electric in its defense against its liability under the 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.^[31][32]

 

Tribe testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2006

In 2014, Tribe was retained to represent Peabody Energy in a suit against the Environmental Protection Agency. Tribe argued that EPA's use of the Clean Air Act to implement its Clean Power Plan was unconstitutional.^[33] Tribe's legal analysis has been criticized by other legal commentators, including fellow Harvard Law School professors Richard J. Lazarus and Jody Freeman, who described his conclusion as "wholly without merit".^[34][35] His advocacy for corporations like Peabody has been criticized by some legal experts.^[31]

On September 25, 2020, Tribe was named as one of the 25 members of the "Real Facebook Oversight Board", an independent monitoring group over Facebook.^[36]

Political involvement

Tribe 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.^[37]

Tribe served as a judicial adviser to Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign.^[1][38] In February 2010, he was named "Senior Counselor for Access to Justice" in the Department of Justice.^[8][39] He resigned eight months later, citing health reasons.^[40]

In December 2016, Tribe and notable lawyers Lawrence Lessig and Andrew Dhuey established The Electors Trust under the aegis of Equal Citizens to provide pro bono legal counsel as well as a secure communications platform for those of the 538 members of the United States Electoral College who were considering a vote of conscience against Donald Trump in the presidential election.^[41]

After the dismissal of James Comey in May 2017, Tribe wrote: "The time has come for Congress to launch an impeachment investigation of President Trump for obstruction of justice." Tribe argued that Trump's conduct rose to the level of "high crimes and misdemeanors" that are impeachable offenses under the Constitution.^[42] He added: "It will require serious commitment to constitutional principle, and courageous willingness to put devotion to the national interest above self-interest and party loyalty, for a Congress of the president's own party to initiate an impeachment inquiry."^[42]

Tribe is on the board of the Renew Democracy Initiative, an American political organization founded in 2017 to promote and defend liberal democracy in the U.S. and abroad.^[43]

In 2004, Tribe acknowledged having plagiarized several phrases and a sentence in his 1985 book, God Save this Honorable Court, from a 1974 book by Henry Abraham.^[44][45] After an investigation, Tribe was reprimanded by Harvard for "a significant lapse in proper academic practice," but the investigation concluded that Tribe did not intend to plagiarize.^[46]

Tribe has stirred controversy due to his promotion of conspiracy theories about Donald Trump's fitness for the presidency.^[47][48] Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan harshly criticized Tribe, saying that he "has become an important vector of misinformation and conspiracy theories on Twitter."^[47] According to McKay Coppins of The Atlantic, Tribe has been "an especially active booster" of the Palmer Report, "a liberal blog known for peddling conspiracy theories".^[49] Tribe removed the posted tweets following the Palmer Report and contests the accuracy of the story of controversy.^[47][48][49]

On August 8, 2023, The New York Times reported that Kenneth Chesebro, who initially laid out "a plot to use false slates of electors to subvert the 2020 election", referred to comments by Tribe, to which Tribe responded that his referred comments were "a gross misrepresentation of my scholarship” by Chesebro, and were "taken out of context".^[50]

Cases

The following is a list of cases Tribe has argued in the Supreme Court, as of the end of 2005:

Case	Citation	Year
Richmond Newspapers v. Virginia	448 U.S. 555	1980
Heffron v. International Society for Krishna Consciousness	452 U.S. 640	1981
Crawford v. Board of Education	458 U.S. 527	1982
Larkin v. Grendel’s Den, Inc.	459 U.S. 116	1982
White v. Massachusetts Council	460 U.S. 204	1983
Pacific Gas & Electric v. California	461 U.S. 190	1983
Hawaii Housing Auth. v. Midkiff	467 U.S. 229	1984
Northeast Bancorp v. Fed. Reserve	472 U.S. 159	1985
National Gay Task Force v. Board of Education	470 U.S. 159	1985
Fisher v. City of Berkeley	475 U.S. 260	1986
Bowers v. Hardwick	478 U.S. 186	1986
Pennzoil v. Texaco	481 U.S. 1	1986
Schweiker v. Chilicky	487 U.S. 412	1988
Granfinanciera v. Nordberg	492 U.S. 33	1989
Sable Communications v. FCC	492 U.S. 115	1989
Adams Fruit v. Barrett	494 U.S. 638	1990
Rust v. Sullivan	500 U.S. 173	1991
Cipollone v. Liggett	505 U.S. 504	1992
TXO v. Alliance Resources	509 U.S. 443	1993
Honda Motor Co. v. Oberg	512 U.S. 415	1994
U.S. v. Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone	516 U.S. 415	1996
Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party	520 U.S. 351	1997
Vacco v. Quill	521 U.S. 793	1997
Amchem Products v. Windsor	521 U.S. 591	1997
Baker v. General Motors	522 U.S. 222	1998
AT&T v. Iowa Utilities Board	525 U.S. 366	1999
Ortiz v. Fibreboard	527 U.S. 815	1999
Bush v. Gore I	531 U.S. 70	2000
New York Times Co. v. Tasini	533 U.S. 438	2001
U.S. v. United Foods	533 U.S. 405	2001
FCC v. NextWave	537 U.S. 293	2002
State Farm v. Campbell	538 U.S. 408	2003
Nike v. Kasky	539 U.S. 654	2003
Johanns v. Livestock Marketing Association	544 U.S. 550	2005

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

Case	Citation	Circuit	Year
Worldwide Church of God v. California	623 F.2d 613^[permanent dead link]	9th	1980
Grendel's Den v. Goodwin	662 F.2d 102	1st	1981
Pacific Legal Foundation v. State Energy Resources	659 F.2d 903^[permanent dead link]	9th	1981
United States v. Sun Myung Moon	718 F.2d 1210	2nd	1983
Romany v. Colegio de Abogados	742 F.2d 32	1st	1984
Westmoreland v. CBS	752 F.2d 16	2nd	1984
Colombrito v. Kelly	764 F.2d 122	2nd	1985
Texaco v. Pennzoil	784 F.2d 1133	2nd	1986
U.S. v. Bank of New England	821 F.2d 844	1st	1987
U.S. v. Gallo	859 F.2d 1078	2nd	1988
U.S. v. GAF Corporation	884 F.2d 670	2nd	1989
U.S. v. Western Electric Company	900 F.2d 283	D.C.	1999
Fineman v. Armstrong World Industries	980 F.2d 171	D.C.	1992
U.S. v. Western Electric Company	993 F.2d 1572	D.C.	1993
Lightning Lube v. Witco Corporation	4 F.3d 1153	3rd	1993
Hopkins v. Dow Corning Corporation	33 F.3d 1116	9th	1994
Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone v. U.S.	42 F.3d 181	4th	1994
Georgine v. Amchem Products, Inc.	83 F.3d 610	3rd	1996
BellSouth Corp. v. F.C.C.	144 F.3d 58	D.C.	1998
SBC Communications v. F.C.C.	154 F.3d 226	5th	1998
City of Dallas v. F.C.C.	F.3d 341	5th	1999
U.S. West v. Tristani	(PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2008. (90.5 KB)	10th	1999
U.S. West v. F.C.C.	(PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on September 20, 2008. (220 KB)	10th	1999
Southwest Voter Registration v. Shelley	"344 F.3d 914" (PDF). (23.0 KB)	9th	2003
Pacific Gas and Elec. v. California	"350 F.3d 932" (PDF). (144 KB)	9th	2003
General Electric v. E.P.A.	"360 F.3d 188" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2007. (49.8 KB)	D.C.	2004

Publications

Books

• To End a Presidency: The Power of Impeachment (2018; co-author with Joshua Matz)
• Uncertain Justice: The Roberts Court and the Constitution (2014; co-author with Joshua Matz)
• 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 (editor; 1976)
• 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
• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 8)

References

1. Schoenberg, Shira (November 14, 2007). "Law expert: Obama will preserve Constitution". Concord Monitor. Archived from the original on July 22, 2012.
2. Bronner, Ethan (June 28, 2012). "A Re-Examination of Roberts's Legacy?". The New York Times. from the original on July 1, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2012.
3. Davenport, Coral (April 6, 2015). "Laurence Tribe Fights Climate Case Against Star Pupil From Harvard, President Obama". The New York Times. from the original on July 30, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
4. Melber, Ari (March 28, 2016). "Harvard Law School's Laurence Tribe Talks Merrick Garland, Supreme Court Fight". NBCNews. Retrieved September 8, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
5. "Tribe to receive Henry M. Phillips Prize in Jurisprudence". from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2020.
6. Kenneth Jost (May 1990). "Roe Revisited (ABA Review)". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. pp. 110–. from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
7. Gregory, Vanessa (December 6, 2010) Indefensible June 14, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, The American Prospect
8. Johnson, Carrie (February 26, 2010). "Prominent Harvard law professor joins Justice Department". The Washington Post. from the original on February 27, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2012. Tribe has served as lead counsel in 35 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, testified before Congress dozens of times and wrote a major treatise on constitutional law.
9. "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 21, 2021.
10. Sullivan, Kathleen M (2007). Legal scholarship symposium: the scholarship of Laurence Tribe. University of Tulsa College Of Law. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
11. "Laurence Tribe on Background". Big Think. January 15, 2008. from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved March 20, 2015.
12. Bhayani, Paras D. (October 18, 2006). "A Humble Start on the Path to Stardom". The Harvard Crimson. from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
13. Carlton Sherwood, Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Regnery Publishing, 1991, 0-89526-532-X, pages 384-386
14. Pazzanese, Christina (June 24, 2020). "Laurence Tribe Speaks on His Career in Constitutional Law". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
15. Benjamin Nugent (May 13, 2008). American Nerd: The Story of My People. Simon and Schuster. p. 104. ISBN 9781416565512. from the original on June 11, 2016. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
16. "2002 Dedication - Laurence H. Tribe". New York University School of Law. from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved October 1, 2015.
17. Blumenkranz, Carla (September 22, 2008). "Radical Speak Performance Artist Mark Tribe Breathes New Life Into Old Politics". New York. New York Magazine Company. 41: 66.
18. . Columbia University. April 8, 2013. Archived from the original on March 10, 2015.
19. "How Barack Obama Amazed His Harvard Law Professor". The Fiscal Times. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
20. "Opinion | Laurence Tribe says Trump should be impeached again — even if a Senate conviction is unlikely". Washington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2021.
21. Laurence Tribe discusses John Roberts' Supreme Court on YouTube
22. Levenson, Michael (October 1, 2019). "Adam Schiff, who steered clear of Harvard Law drama, now at the center of impeachment inquiry". Boston Globe. from the original on December 31, 2019.
23. "Laurence Tribe speaks on his career in constitutional law". Harvard Gazette. June 24, 2020. Retrieved January 13, 2021.
24. Levy, Richard E. (2006). The Power to Legislate. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 192. ISBN 9780313086328. from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
25. Epps, Garrett (March 15, 2001). To An Unknown God: Religious Freedom On Trial. St. Martin's Press. pp. 79–. ISBN 9780312262396. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
26. Goldstein, Tom; Lieberman, Jethro K. (December 14, 2002). The Lawyer's Guide to Writing Well: Second Edition. University of California Press. pp. 81–. ISBN 9780520929074. from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
27. Blount, Jackie M. (2005). Fit to Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century. SUNY Press. pp. 160–. ISBN 9780791462676. from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
28. Bronner, Ethan (2007). Battle for Justice: How the Bork Nomination Shook America. Union Square Press. pp. 266–. ISBN 9781402752278. from the original on May 9, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
29. "Cipollone v. Liggett Group, Inc". Oyez. from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2019.
30. Toobin, Jeffrey (October 1, 2002). Too Close to Call: The Thirty-Six-Day Battle to Decide the 2000 Election. Random House. pp. 100–. ISBN 9780375761072. from the original on May 8, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
31. Tim Wu (May 6, 2015). "Did Laurence Tribe Sell Out?". The New Yorker. from the original on September 30, 2015. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
32. Mayberry, Jodine (February 26, 2009). . Findlaw.com. Archived from the original on May 28, 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2015.
33. Davenport, Coral (March 19, 2015). "McConnell urges states to help thwart Obama's war on coal". The New York Times. from the original on February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 19, 2017.
34. Freeman, Jody; Lazarus, Richard J. (March 18, 2015). "Is the President's Climate Plan Unconstitutional?". Harvard Law Today. from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
35. "Larry Tribe and Mitch McConnell's Flagrant Constitutional Error". Politico Magazine. March 25, 2015. from the original on April 18, 2015. Retrieved April 23, 2015.
36. Ortutay, Barbara (May 3, 2021). "A decision on suspended Trump Facebook account this week". Associated Press. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
37. , Association of American Medical Colleges. Retrieved April 10, 2011.
38. Egelko, Bob (October 20, 2008). "Next president will shape Supreme Court". San Francisco Chronicle. from the original on May 8, 2009. Retrieved July 16, 2020.
39. "Tribe named Senior Counselor for Access to Justice". Harvard Law School. February 26, 2010. from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved February 26, 2010.
40. "Laurence Tribe to return to Harvard Law School in January". Harvard Law School. November 18, 2010. from the original on April 15, 2012. Retrieved April 15, 2012.
41. Cheney, Kyle (December 5, 2016). "Lessig, lawyers to offer support to anti-Trump electors". Politico. from the original on December 20, 2016. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
42. Laurence H. Tribe (May 13, 2017). "Trump must be impeached. Here's why". The Washington Post. from the original on May 14, 2017. Retrieved May 15, 2017.
43. Boot, Max (April 25, 2018). "The political center is fighting back". The Washington Post. from the original on May 8, 2019.
44. Bottum, Joseph (October 4, 2004). "The Big Mahatma". The Weekly Standard. from the original on May 26, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
45. Rimer, Sara (November 24, 2004). "When Plagiarism's Shadow Falls on Admired Scholars". The New York Times. from the original on October 7, 2013. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
46. Pope, Justin (April 14, 2005). . Associated Press. Archived from the original on April 20, 2005. Retrieved May 11, 2010.
47. "2 Professors Walk Into a Dumpster Fire ..." The Chronicle of Higher Education. June 20, 2017. from the original on December 7, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
48. "Why Is A Top Harvard Law Professor Sharing Anti-Trump Conspiracy Theories?". BuzzFeed. from the original on December 5, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
49. Coppins, McKay. "How the Left Lost Its Mind". The Atlantic. from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2017.
50. Haberman, Maggie; Savage, Charlie; Broadwater, Luke (August 8, 2023). "Previously Secret Memo Laid Out Strategy for Trump to Overturn Biden's Win - The House Jan. 6 committee's investigation did not uncover the memo, whose existence first came to light in last week's indictment". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 9, 2023. Retrieved August 10, 2023.

Bibliography

• Leila Schneps and Coralie Colmez, Math on trial. How numbers get used and abused in the courtroom, Basic Books, Chapter 2 (2013); ISBN 978-0-465-03292-1.

External links

 

Wikiquote has quotations related to Laurence Tribe.

• Laurence H. Tribe | Harvard Law School
• Laurence Tribe on Charlie Rose
• Laurence Tribe essays at ScotusBlog
• washingtonpost.com May 13, 2017: Trump must be impeached. Here’s why.
• Appearances on C-SPAN