Kim Forde-Mazrui is Professor of Law and Justice Thurgood Marshall Distinguished
Professor in Law at the University of Virginia. He also serves as Director of the Center
for the Study of Race and Law at the University of Virginia Law School. He earned his
B.A. in Philosophy, summa cum laude, from the University of Michigan in 1990, and his
Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 1993.
After serving a year as judicial clerk to the Honorable Cornelia Kennedy of the United
States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, he joined the law firm of Sidley &
Austin in Washington, D.C. where he practiced law for two years. 

Forde-Mazrui joined the law faculty of the University of Virginia in 1996 where he
teaches criminal law & procedure, constitutional law, and race and law. His research
interests include race and criminal procedure, race in the child placement process,
affirmative action, and reparations. Forde-Mazrui's publications include: Ruling Out
the Rule of Law, 60 VAND. L. REV. 1497 (2007); Learning Law Through the Lens of Race, 21
J.L. & Pol. 1 (2005); Taking Conservatives Seriously: A Moral Justification for
Affirmative Action and Reparations, 92 CAL L. REV. 683 (2004); Live and Let Love:
Self-Determination in Matters of Intimacy and Identity, 101 MICH. L. REV. 2185 (2003)
(reviewing RANDALL KENNEDY, INTERRACIAL INTIMACIES: SEX, MARRIAGE, IDENTITY AND ADOPTION
(2003)); Will Affirmative Action Survive?: Grutter v. Bollinger Asks the Supreme Court,
LEGAL TIMES, Vol. XXV, No. 24, p.52 (June 17, 2002) (op-ed); The Constitutional
Implications of Race-Neutral Affirmative Action, 88 GEO L.J. 2331 (2000); Jural
Districting: Selecting Impartial Juries Through Community Representation, 52 VAND. L.
REV. 353 (1999); and Black Identity and Child Placement: The Best Interests of Black and
Biracial Children, 92 MICH. L. REV. 925 (1994). Works-in-progress include an examination
of the constitutional implications of Arab profiling. 

Civil Rights

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Ruling Out the Rule of Law, Vanderbilt Law Review (2007)
Although criminal justice scholars continue to debate the overall value of the void-for-vagueness doctrine, broad...