Marc Spindelman, the Isadore and Ida Topper Professor of Law at The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, will preview the same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court this term in a lecture at The University of Toledo College of Law on March 21.

The free, public talk titled “Marriage Equality & Racial Justice” will be held at noon, Thursday, March 21, in the College’s McQuade Law Auditorium.

On March 26 and 27 the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral argument in United States v. Windsor, a challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and Hollingsworth v. Perry, a challenge to California’s Proposition 8. Professor Spindelman will summarize the arguments on both sides and the questions posed by the cases, including constitutional questions about the power of states and of the federal government to pass laws that forbid or discourage same-sex marriage.

The battle for marriage equality being waged in cases like those currently before the Supreme Court is widely supposed to be in perfect harmony with civil rights projects that aim for racial justice. But Professor Spindelman asks whether the constitutional arguments being made for marriage equality in the federal courts in any way dovetail with the elimination of race-conscious remedial projects such as affirmative action in higher education – and if, as a result, new and different approaches to marriage equality are necessary.

“Professor Spindelman will provide an excellent introduction to what promise to be landmark decisions by the United States Supreme Court, and his talk will be of interest to anyone interested in this important social issue,” said Daniel J. Steinbock, dean of the College of Law.

Spindelman teaches and writes about bioethics, constitutional law, family law, feminist legal theory, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender rights, health law, law and sexuality, and physician-assisted suicide. He is the co-author of the casebook Family Law: Cases and Materials (6th Edition) published by Foundation Press last year.

Spindelman is regularly consulted by the press, and his views have appeared in Time Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and USA Today, among many others. He also has appeared on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition, as well as ABC Nightly News, CNN, and other television and radio outlets.

He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. Following law school, Spindelman clerked for Judge (now Chief Judge) Alice M. Batchelder on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Click here to download a photo of Spindelman.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant dean of communications for the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Tags: College of Law