Race and Policing

Barry Friedman is the Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law at New York University School of Law, the Director of the New York University School of Law’s Policing Project, and the lead Reporter on the ALI’s Principles of the Law, Policing project. Professor Friedman is one of the country’s leading authorities on constitutional law, criminal procedure, and the federal courts. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed The Will of the People: How Public Opinion Has Influenced the Supreme Court and Shaped the Meaning of the Constitution (2009), and the widely-discussed book on policing and the Constitution, Unwarranted: Policing without Permission, (2017). He writes extensively about police regulation, constitutional law and theory, federal jurisdiction, and judicial behavior. His scholarship appears regularly in the nation’s top law and peer-edited reviews, and he is a frequent contributor to the nation's leading publications, including The New York Times, Slate, The Los Angeles Times, Politico and The New Republic, among others. He currently is co-authoring a book for a new course entitled Judicial Decision making, that marries social science about judging with normative and institutional legal questions. His books and articles have been cited and relied upon countless times by scholars and policymakers alike.

Professor Friedman serves as a litigator or litigation consultant on a variety of matters in the federal and state courts, for both private clients and pro bono. He has long been involved with social change issues. In 1995 he won the Clarence Darrow Award from the ACLU of Tennessee for his work in defense of civil liberties; he has also been recognized twice by the State and Local Legal Center for his work on behalf of state and local governments.

He serves as the Founding Director of the Policing Project at NYU Law, devoted to helping bring principles of democratic governance and data-driven best practices to policing. He circulates through a variety of courses about policing, including Democratic Policing, a colloquium on policing, and the Policing Project externship. 

Professor Friedman graduated from the University of Chicago and received his law degree magna cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center. He clerked for the Honorable Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and also worked as a litigation associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell in Washington D.C. He was a professor at Vanderbilt Law School before joining the NYU faculty in 2000.

Sherrilyn Ifill is the seventh President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Sherrilyn is a long-time member of the LDF family. After graduating law school, she served first as a fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union and then for five years as an assistant counsel in LDF’s New York office, where she litigated voting rights cases.  Among her successful litigation was the landmark Voting Rights Act case Houston Lawyers’ Association vs. Attorney General of Texas, in which the Supreme Court held that judicial elections are covered by the provisions of section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. 

In 1993, Sherrilyn joined the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Law, where, in addition to teaching Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law and variety of seminars, she continued to litigate and consult on a broad and diverse range of civil rights cases while grooming the next generation of civil rights lawyers. In addition to teaching in the classroom, Sherrilyn launched several innovative legal offerings while at Maryland Law School, including an environmental justice course in which students represented rural communities in Maryland, and one of the first legal clinics in the nation focused on removing legal barriers to formerly incarcerated persons seeking to responsibly re-enter society.  From her base in Baltimore, Ifill emerged as a highly regarded national civil rights strategist and public intellectual whose writings, speeches and media appearances enrich public debate about a range of political and civil rights issues. 

A critically acclaimed author, her book On the Courthouse Lawn: Confronting the Legacy of Lynching in the 21st Century, reflects her lifelong engagement in and analysis of issues of race and American public life.  Sherrilyn’s scholarly writing has focused on the importance of diversity on the bench, and she is currently writing a book about race and Supreme Court confirmation hearings.  She is the immediate past Chair of the Board of U.S. Programs at the Open Society Institute, one of the largest philanthropic supporters of civil rights and social justice organizations in the country.  Sherrilyn is a graduate of Vassar College, and received her J.D. from New York University School of Law.

The NAACP Legal and Educational Defense Fund, Inc. is America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice. Through litigation, advocacy, and public education, LDF seeks structural changes to expand democracy, eliminate disparities, and achieve racial justice in a society that fulfills the promise of equality for all Americans. LDF also defends the gains and protections won over the past 75 years of civil rights struggle and works to improve the quality and diversity of judicial and executive appointments.

John G. Malcolm oversees The Heritage Foundation’s work to increase understanding of the Constitution and the rule of law as director of the think tank’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.

Malcolm, who also is Heritage’s Ed Gilbertson and Sherry Lindberg Gilbertson senior legal fellow, brings to the challenge a wealth of legal expertise and experience in both the public and private sectors.

Before being named director of the Meese Center in July 2013, he spearheaded the center’s rule of law programs. His research and writing as senior legal fellow focused on criminal law, immigration, national security, religious liberty and intellectual property.

The Meese Center works to educate government officials, the media and the public about the Constitution and legal principles -- and how they affect public policy. The center was founded in 2001 and overseen until early 2013 by the conservative icon whose name it bears, former Attorney General Edwin Meese III.

In addition to his duties at Heritage, John is chairman of the Criminal Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and chairman of the board of directors for Boys Town Washington, D.C., which provides homes and services to troubled children and families who are edging toward crisis.

Before joining Heritage in 2012, he was general counsel at the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom as well as a distinguished practitioner in residence at Pepperdine Law School. An independent and bipartisan panel, USCIRF reviews reported violations of religious freedom around the world and makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of state and Congress.

From 2004 to 2009, Malcolm was executive vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy operations for the Motion Picture Association of America.

He served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division from 2001 to 2004, where he oversaw sections on computer crime and intellectual property, domestic security, child exploitation and obscenity, and special investigations.  Immediately prior to that, he was a partner in the Atlanta law firm of Malcolm & Schroeder, LLP.

From 1990 to 1997, John was an assistant U.S. attorney in Atlanta, assigned to the fraud and public corruption section, and also an associate independent counsel, investigating fraud and abuse in the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He was honored with the Director’s Award for Superior Performance for his work as an assistant U.S. attorney in the successful prosecution of Walter Leroy Moody Jr., who assassinated an 11th Circuit judge and the head of the Savannah chapter of the NAACP.

John began his law career as a law clerk to a federal district court judge and a federal appellate court judge as well as an associate at the Atlanta-based law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan.

He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Columbia College. Born in New York City, he grew up in Tenafly, N.J. He and his wife, Mary Lee, currently reside in Washington, D.C. They have two adult children, Andy and Amanda.