David S. Cohen’s scholarship explores constitutional law and gender issues in the law that range from sex discrimination to interactions between gender identity and social policy. Professor Cohen's publications include forthcoming articles in the Harvard Journal of Law and Gender and the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. An article about masculinity and single-sex education was published in the Indiana Law Journal, and an article about Justice Kennedy’s conceptions of gender appeared in a symposium issue of the South Carolina Law Review. The Boston University Law Review published an article that uses social choice theory to examine paradoxical Supreme Court plurality decisions that call for overruling precedent. His previous scholarship looked at Title IX protections against sex discrimination as well as race in the criminal justice system. Professor Cohen received his J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where he was named a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and received the Public Interest Commitment Award and two Columbia Human Rights Fellowships. He was managing editor of the Columbia Human Rights Law Review and articles editor of the Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. After clerking for Justice Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court and Judge Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Professor Cohen worked as a fellow and staff attorney for the Women’s Law Project in Philadelphia. There, he handled a range of cases involving reproductive rights, sex discrimination under Title IX, health insurance coverage of contraceptives, health care for women prisoners and family rights for gay and lesbian couples. Professor Cohen worked on several U.S. Supreme Court cases, including representing the plaintiffs in Ferguson v. City of Charleston. Before coming to Drexel, he was a lecturer-in-law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He also held adjunct professor positions at the University of Pennsylvania and Long Island University. Professor Cohen was chosen by graduating students to receive the Dean Jennifer L. Rosato Excellence in the Classroom Award in 2009 and in 2010. He currently serves on the board of directors for the Women’s Medical Fund in Philadelphia. He contributes to the "Feminist Law Professors" blog and "The Good Phight," a blog on the Philadelphia Phillies.
Articles
Keeping Men Men and Women Down: Sex Segregation, Anti-Essentialism, and Masculinity, Harvard Journal of Law and Gender (forthcoming 2010) (2010)
Current-day sex segregation is one of the central ways that law and society define and...
The Precedent-Based Voting Paradox, Boston University Law Review (2010)
A voting paradox arises when the outcome of a case is the opposite of the...
No Boy Left Behind? Single-Sex Education and the Essentialist Myth of Masculinity, Indiana Law Journal (2009)
In late 2006, the Department of Education changed the Title IX regulations to broaden the...
Justice Kennedy's Gendered World, South Carolina Law Review (2008)
As part of the South Carolina Law Review's symposium on the Roberts Court and Equal...
Title IX: Beyond Equal Protection, Harvard Journal of Law & Gender (2005)
The relationship between Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause is relevant to many areas...
Working Papers
The Stubborn Persistence of Sex Segregation (2010)
Almost fifty years ago, Congress began protecting against sex discrimination in federal statutory law. Almost...