Professor Richard L. Aynes earned Bachelor and Juris Doctor degrees from Miami University and Cleveland-Marshall College of Law before joining The University of Akron School of Law in 1976 as coordinator of the Appellate Review Office and a lecturer. He was Associate Dean from 1984 – 1993 and has held the rank of Professor since 1986. He served as UA’s interim athletics director in 1993-94 and returned to Akron Law where he held the John F. Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law for the balance of 1994. Professor Aynes was appointed Dean of Akron Law in 1995, a position he held through 2007. In spring 2008 he returned to the faculty as holder the John F. Seiberling Chair of Law and Director of the Constitutional Law Center. His research and teaching interests include constitutional law, the 14th Amendment and legal history. He has written numerous articles in the area of Constitutional Law including articles published in the Yale Law Journal, the Journal of Southern Legal History, the Chicago Kent Law Review and the Catholic University Law Review. Professor Aynes has been admitted to the bar for the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio. Among his current and past memberships are the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Akron Bar Association, Western Reserve Legal Services (Board of Trustees), ABA Special Committee of Evaluation of Judicial Performance (reporter), and consultant to the ABA Victim's Committee, Ohio Supreme Court Racial Fairness Implementation Committee, Ohio Supreme Court Continuing Legal Education Committee and Scanlon Inn of Court.
Articles
Ink Blot or Not: the Meaning of Privileges And/Or Immunities, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law (2009)
This article examines the meaning of the terms privileges and immunities as used in Article...
39th Congress (1865-1867) and the 14th Amendment: Some Preliminary Perspectives, Akron Law Review (2009)
The 39th Congress (1865-1867) was one of the important Congresses in our history. It passed...
Enforcing the Bill of Rights Against the States: The History and the Future, Journal of Contemporary Legal Issues (2009)
This article traces, in broad strokes, the history of the disputes about whether or not...
Stone Soup: Thoughts on Balancing a Deanship and Family Life After Twelve Years as Dean, University of Toledo Law Review (2008)
JUNE 30, 2007 marked the conclusion of my twelve-year service as Dean of the University...
Unintended Consequences of the Fourteenth Amendment and What They Tell us About its Interpretation, Akron Law Review (2006)
The Fourteenth Amendment has been compared to “second American Constitution.” Indeed, it is said that...
Books
Contributions to Books
Secession, Stove v. Mississippi 101 U.S. 814 (1880), Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (2008)
Two articles published in volume 4:
1. Secession, 352-354
2. Stone v. Mississippi,...
Test Oath Cases; Morris Waite; Writs, Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (2008)
Three articles published in volume 5:
1. Test Oath Cases, 36-37
...Ohio and the Drafting and Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment (Chapter 9), The History of Ohio Law (2004)
Other Works
Book Review: Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction, The Historian (2006)
Reviewing Heather Cox Richardson, The Death of Reconstruction: Race, Labor, and Politics in the Post-Civil...
Book Review: Pamela Brandwein, Reconstructing Reconstruction, The Supreme Court and the Production of Historical Truth, American Journal of Legal History (2001)
Reviewing Pamela Brandwein, Reconstructing Reconstruction: The Supreme Court and the Production of Historical Truth (Duke...
Book Review: Akhil Amar, the Bill of Rights, and the Seven Deadly Sins of Legal Scholarship, William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal (2000)
The publication of The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction by one of the nation's...
Book Review: Wayne D. Moore, Constitutional Rights and Power of the People, The Historian (1998)
Reviewing Wayne D. Moore, Constitutional Rights and Power of the People (Princeton University Press 1996).
Book Review: Stephen L. Wasby, Race Relations Litigation in an Age of Complexity, American Journal of Legal History (1997)
Reviewing Stephen L. Wasby, Race Relations Litigation in an Age of Complexity (University Press of...