David F. Forte Topic: What Does the Court Owe the Founders? — 51:55 RealAudio: Click Here to Listen Help Listening

The Second Annual Robert E. Henderson Constitution Day Lecture featured guest lecturer Dr. David F. Forte, Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, on Friday, September 15, 2000.

David F. Forte holds degrees from Harvard College, Manchester University, England, the University of Toronto and Columbia University.

During the Reagan administration Professor Forte served as chief counsel to the United States delegation to the United Nations and alternative delegate to the Security Council. He has authored a number of briefs before the United States Supreme Court, and has frequently testified before the United States Congress on human rights and international affairs issues. His advice was specifically sought on the approval of the Genocide Convention and on world-wide religious persecution. He has also been called to testify before the state legislatures of Ohio and Idaho as well as the New York City Council. He has assisted in drafting a number of pieces of legislation for the Ohio General Assembly dealing with abortion, international trade, and federalism. He sits as acting judge on the municipal court of Lakewood Ohio and was chairman of the Professional Ethics Committee of the Cleveland Bar Association. He has received a number of awards for his public service.

Professor Forte was a Bradley Scholar at the Heritage Foundation, and Visiting Scholar at the Liberty Fund. He has been President of the Ohio Association of Scholars, and is also an adjunct fellow at the Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs, as well as being on the Board of Academic Advisers to the Buckeye Institute, the National Lawyers Association, the Shaybani Society, and the Board of Directors of the American Society of Comparative Law. His Holiness, John Paul II, has appointed Dr. Forte as Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Family.

He writes and speaks widely on topics such as constitutional law, religious liberty, Islamic law, the rights of families, and international affairs. Recent articles include, “Spiritual Equality, the Black Codes, and the Americanization of the Freedmen,” Loyola Law Review, and “Marbury’s Travail: Federalist Politics and William Marbury’s Appointment as Justice of the Peace,” Catholic University Law Review. He is book review editor for the American Journal of Jurisprudence and has edited a volume entited, Natural Law and Contemporary Public Policy, published by Georgetown University Press. His latest book, Studies in Islamic Law: Classical and Contemporary Applications, has just been published by Austin & Winfield. He is currently writing, “Justice Cardozo and the Commerce Clause: the Forgotten Compromise,” and “The Right to a Lawful Calling: Revisiting the Privileges and Immunities Clause.” His research now centers on the jurisprudential topics of natural law and the judicial function, and a topic tentatively entitled, “Towards a Jurisprudence of Intimacy.”

His teaching competencies include Constitutional Law, the First Amendment, Islamic Law, Jurisprudence, International Law, International Human Rights, and Constitutional History.

Purchase Dr. David F. Forte’s book:
Studies in Islamic Law: Classical and Contemporary Applications