Restorative Justice: Securing Posthumous Bar Admissions Artwork

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Law to Fact is the renown podcast for law students where substantive legal issues are discussed with distinguished law professors from across the nation. Today, it is the go to place for all things law including course material, application tips, study strategies, and career advice—all packed into one podcast. Law to Fact is hosted by Professor Leslie Garfield Tenzer of the Elisabeth Haub School of Law at Pace University.

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Restorative Justice: Securing Posthumous Bar Admissions

March 19, 2021 • Professor Leslie Garfield Tenzer

In this episode...

We speak with Judge, Attorney, Historian, and Professor John Browning about righting historic wrongs. Prof. Browning has dedicated the past few years correcting the racial wrongs of State Bars. Last year, he secured admission for an African American man who aspired to be a lawyer in the 1880s but was denied bar admission because of his race. He is currently petitioning the New York State Bar to admit Ely S. Parker, a Native American War hero and the First Commissioner of Native American Affairs.

Some Key Takeaways...

State Supreme Courts have only awarded six posthumous bar admissions for those denied admission based on race.
Of the 6 posthumous admissions to date, 3 were Asian American men, and 3 were African American.
Asian Americans were prevented from becoming lawyers based on federal laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act, while African Americans were discriminated against based on specific laws in states like California and Maryland that barred Blacks from becoming lawyers, as well as by systemic racism.
Due to the lack of scholarship into this area and difficulties in locating documentary evidence of such exclusions, no one knows how many aspiring attorneys of color were prevented from entering the legal profession.

About our guest...
John Browning is a partner at the PlanoTexas office of Spencer Fane LLP, an Adjunct Professor of Law at Southern Methodist University Dedham School of Law and a former justice for the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas. The author of five law books and 40 academic articles, Justice Browning is a nationally-recognized thought leader at the intersection of technology and the law whose work has been cited as authority by courts in California, New York, Texas, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Maryland, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico. He is also a respected legal historian, particularly in the areas of African American and Native American legal history.
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If you would like to contact Prof. Browning regarding his work you may reach him at jbrowning@spencerfane.com
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