Emory Law Journal
EMORY LAW JOURNAL
EDITORIAL BOARD
Presents
Editor in Chief
Benjamin A. Klebanoff
Executive
Articles Editor
Jameson B. Bilsborrow
Executive
Managing Editors
Elliott A. Foote
Matthew E. Hayes
Claire M. Jordan
Ryan S. Rummage
Executive
Notes & Comments Editor
Burton F. Peebles
Executive Symposium Editor
Gerard F. Bifulco
Executive Marketing Editor
Clayton E. Collett
Executive Online Editor
Eric M. Preston
Articles Editors
Ashley M. Allman
Nicholas B. Corser
George N. Holtan
Wes Pickard
Jonathan A. Porter
Shawn N. Skolky
Jonathan B. Spital
Managing Editors
Christian J. Bromley
Yijun Han
Ji Yoon Sharon Kim
L. Vanessa Lopez
Melissa A. O’Neill
Kimberly Rubin
Joshua E. Schwartz
Neeraj K. Shah
Joyce J. Shin
Kristin N. Ward
Notes & Comments Editors
Elizabeth J. Accurso
Lindsey L. Costakos
Melissa L. Fox
Kathleen R. Harrison
Patrick H. Hill
Christina M. Jones
Alexander J. Owings
Sabrina Wilson
Symposium Editor
Roxanne A. Walton
Online Editors
Andrew S. Hirsch
Seongun Matthias Hong
Robyn M. Kramer
CANDIDATES FOR THE BOARD
Cindy Allen
Thomas Bailey
Roderick Blevins
Andrea Clark
Lacey A. Elmore
Ariel Emmanuel
William Eye
Dane Ferre
Jessica Floyd
Mary Grace Gallagher
Rebecca Hall
Catherine Hawley
Kasia Hebda
Robert High
Matthew Johnson
Katya Keremidchieva
Dylan Kidd
George Knight
Logan Kotler
Zoya Kovalenko
Jennifer Lamb
Joy Llaguno
Kelly McGinnis
Allison Murphy
Alexander Northover
Alyssa Pardo
Caitlin Pardue
FACULTY ADVISORS
Dorothy A. Brown
Rafael I. Pardo
Ryan Pulley
Evyn Rabinowitz
Katherine Rookard
Elizabeth Rosenwasser
David M. Rothenberg
Nicole Sandler
Jolie Schamber
Michael P. Senger
Katherine Sheriff
Blake Simon
Garrett Von Schaumburg
Caroline Wood
Allison Wu
Anthony Yu
The 2015
Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
THE NEW AGE OF
COMMUNICATION:
Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Emory University School of Law
Atlanta, Georgia
The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
THE NEW AGE OF
COMMUNICATION:
Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century
The Randolph W. Thrower Symposium is an endowed series
sponsored by Mr. Thrower’s family and hosted by the
Emory Law Journal and Emory University School of Law
8:00-8:50 a.m. Breakfast and Registration
9:00-9:15 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
• Dean Robert Schapiro, Emory University School of Law
• Benjamin Klebanoff, Editor in Chief, Emory Law Journal
• Gerard Bifulco, Executive Symposium Editor, Emory Law Journal
9:15-10:15 a.m.
Keynote Address: Professor Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law
10:15-10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Panel I: Freedom of Speech: Theory and Foundations
12:00-1:00 p.m.
Lunch
1:00-2:30 p.m.
Panel II: The First Amendment Today
2:30-2:45 p.m.Break
2:45-4:15 p.m.
Panel III: Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century
4:15-4:30 p.m.
Concluding Remarks: Gerard Bifulco
4:30-6:00 p.m.Reception
Emory University School of Law1
SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW
SYMPOSIUM OVERVIEW
THE NEW AGE OF COMMUNICATION: Freedom of Speech
in the 21st Century will explore the changing doctrine of free speech in
the United States. The Supreme Court has been actively shaping speech rights
through decisions such as McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission,
Snyder v. Phelps, and United States v. Alvarez. These new opinions and
approaches create an occasion for stimulating dialogue on the foundations,
current doctrines, and future of free speech. The 2015 Thrower Symposium has
been developed with Professor Alexander Tsesis of Loyola University Chicago
School of Law.
8:00-8:50 a.m.
Breakfast and Registration, Hunter Atrium
9:00-9:15 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
• Dean Robert Schapiro, Emory University School of Law
• Benjamin Klebanoff, Editor in Chief, Emory Law Journal
• Gerard Bifulco, Executive Symposium Editor, Emory Law Journal
1:00-2:30 p.m.
Panel II: The First Amendment Today
• Jane Bambauer, University of Arizona College of Law
• Richard Delgado & Jean Stefancic (co-presenters),
The University of Alabama School of Law
• Tejinder Singh, Goldstein & Russell, P.C.
• Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law
Moderator: Gerald Weber, Principal, The Weber Law Offices
2:45-4:15 p.m.
Panel III: Freedom of Speech in the 21st Century
• Derek Bambauer, University of Arizona College of Law
• Caroline Mala Corbin, University of Miami School of Law
• David S. Han, Pepperdine University School of Law
• Jay Sekulow, American Center for Law and Justice
Moderator: Thomas C. Arthur, Emory University School of Law
4:15-4:30 p.m.
Concluding Remarks
• Gerard Bifulco, Executive Symposium Editor, Emory Law Journal
4:30-6:00 p.m.
Reception, Hunter Atrium
9:15-10:15 a.m. Keynote Address, Professor Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law
10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. Panel I: Freedom of Speech: Theory and Foundations
• Erwin Chemerinsky, University of California-Irvine School of Law
• Frederick Schauer, University of Virginia Law School
• Alexander Tsesis, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
• Laura Weinrib, The University of Chicago Law School
Moderator: Julie Seaman, Emory University School of Law
12:00-1:00 p.m. Lunch, Hunter Atrium
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The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
Emory University School of Law3
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
Eugene Volokh, Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Eugene Volokh teaches First Amendment law and a First
Amendment amicus brief clinic at UCLA School of Law, where he
has also often taught copyright law, criminal law, tort law, and a
seminar on firearms regulation policy. Before coming to UCLA, he
clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the US Supreme Court
and for Judge Alex Kozinski on the US Court of Appeals for the
Ninth Circuit.
Professor Volokh is the author of the textbooks The First
Amendment and Related Statutes (5th ed. 2014), The Religion
Clauses and Related Statutes (2005), and Academic Legal Writing (4th ed. 2011), as
well as over 75 law review articles. He is a member of The American Law Institute,
a member of the American Heritage Dictionary Usage Panel, and the founder and
coauthor of The Volokh Conspiracy, a Weblog that is now hosted at the Washington
Post. Professor Volokh is also an Academic Affiliate for the Mayer Brown LLP law firm,
and he has litigated extensively on First Amendment law in recent years.
Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean, Distinguished Professor of Law, Raymond Pryke
Professor of First Amendment Law, University of California-Irvine School of Law
Erwin Chemerinsky is the founding dean and Distinguished
Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First
Amendment Law, at UC Irvine School of Law, with a joint
appointment in political science. Prior to assuming this position in
2008, he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political
Science at Duke University from 2004–2008, and before that was a
professor at the University of Southern California Law School from
1983–2004, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public
Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science.
He is the author of eight books, including The Case Against the Supreme Court,
published by Viking in 2014, and more than 200 law review articles. He frequently
argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court. Dean Chemerinsky
is a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School.
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
Frederick Schauer, Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia Law School
Frederick Schauer is David and Mary Harrison Distinguished
Professor of Law at the University of Virginia. From 1990 to 2008
he was Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment at Harvard
University. Previously he was Professor of Law at the University of
Michigan, and has been Visiting Professor of Law at the Columbia
Law School and the University of Chicago, Distinguished Visiting
Professor at Dartmouth College and the University of Toronto,
Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, Distinguished
Visitor at New York University, and Eastman Professor and Fellow
of Balliol College at Oxford University.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of a Guggenheim
Fellowship, Professor Schauer is the author of The Law of Obscenity (1976),
Free Speech: A Philosophical Enquiry (1982), Playing By the Rules: A Philosophical
Examination of Rule-Based Decision-Making in Law and in Life (1991), Profiles,
Probabilities, and Stereotypes (2003), Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction
to Legal Reasoning (2009), and The Force of Law (2015), and the editor of Karl
Llewellyn, The Theory of Rules (2011). A founding editor of the journal Legal Theory,
he has been chair of the Section on Constitutional Law of the Association of American
Law Schools and the Committee on Philosophy and Law of the American Philosophical
Association. Professor Schauer has written widely on freedom of expression,
constitutional law and theory, evidence, legal reasoning, and the philosophy of law.
His books have been translated into Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, and Turkish,
and his scholarship has been the subject of a book—Rules and Reasoning: Essays in
Honour of Fred Schauer, (Linda Meyer ed., 1999) and special issues of the Notre Dame,
Connecticut, and Quinnipiac Law Reviews, Politeia, Ratio Juris, and the Harvard
Journal of Law and Public Policy.
Alexander Tsesis, Professor of Law, Loyola University Chicago School of Law
Alexander Tsesis is Professor of Law at Loyola University, Chicago,
School of Law faculty. He teaches Constitutional Law, First
Amendment, Civil Procedure, and seminars devoted to civil rights
issues and constitutional interpretation. His articles have appeared
in a variety of law reviews across the country, including the
Columbia Law Review, Texas Law Review, Cornell Law Review,
Minnesota Law Review, University of California-Davis Law
Review, and Boston College Law Review.
Professor Tsesis is a frequent presenter to law school faculties
nationwide on issues involving constitutional law, civil rights, and hate speech legislation.
Professor Tsesis has also served as an outside manuscript reviewer for the Cambridge
University Press, University of Chicago Press, University of Illinois Press, New York
University Press, Oxford University Press, and Yale University Press. He has been an
expert witness for the Canadian Department of Justice and a legislative advisor to Senator
Edward Kennedy.
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The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
Emory University School of Law5
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
Laura Weinrib, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Laura Weinrib is an Assistant Professor of Law at the University of
Chicago Law School. A legal historian, her scholarship explores the
intersection of constitutional law and labor law, with an emphasis
on the social and cultural history of legal advocacy and ideas. Her
current book project is The Taming of Free Speech (under contract
with Harvard University Press). Based on extensive research in the
ACLU records, among other sources, it traces the emergence during
the first half of the twentieth century of a constitutional concept of
civil liberties, enforced by the courts, which protected speakers and
ideas regardless of their popularity or perceived legitimacy.
Professor Weinrib is a 2003 graduate of Harvard Law School. After law school, she
clerked for Judge Thomas L. Ambro of the United States Court of Appeals for the
Third Circuit. She completed her Ph.D. in history at Princeton University in 2011.
Her dissertation, The Liberal Compromise: Civil Liberties, Labor, and the Limits of
State Power, 1917–1940, received the Cromwell Prize for the best dissertation in legal
history by the American Society for Legal History. Prior to joining the University of
Chicago Law School faculty, she was a Samuel I. Golieb Fellow in Legal History at the
New York University School of Law. She is an Associate Member of the Department of
History at the University of Chicago.
Julie Seaman, Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
Julie Seaman teaches Evidence and a seminar on the First
Amendment. Professor Seaman received her BA. from the
University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude) and her JD from
Harvard (magna cum laude), where she was an editor of the
Harvard Law Review and a teaching assistant for the federal
litigation course. She clerked with federal district court Judge
Robert J. Ward and she has taught legal writing as an adjunct
professor at Stetson University School of Law.
Jane Bambauer, Associate Professor of Law, University of Arizona College of Law
Jane Bambauer is an Associate Professor of Law at the University of
Arizona College of Law. Professor Bambauer’s research assesses the
social costs and benefits of data, and questions the wisdom of many
well-intentioned privacy laws. Her articles have appeared in the
Stanford Law Review, the Michigan Law Review, and the Journal
of Empirical Legal Studies. Professor Bambauer’s own data-driven
research explores biased judgment, legal education, and legal
careers. Professor Bambauer holds a BS in mathematics from Yale
College and a JD from Yale Law School. She occasionally writes for
The Huffington Post and Info/Law.
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The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
Richard Delgado, Professor and John J. Sparkman Chair of Law,
University of Alabama School of Law
One of the leading commentators on race in the United States,
Richard Delgado has appeared on Good Morning America, the
MacNeil-Lehrer Report, PBS, NPR, the Fred Friendly Show, and
Canadian NPR. Author of over 180 journal articles and twenty
eight books, his work has been praised or reviewed in The Nation,
The New Republic, the New York Times, Washington Post, and
Wall Street Journal. His books have won eight national book prizes,
including six Gustavus Myers Awards for outstanding book on
human rights in North America, the American Library Association’s
Outstanding Academic Book, and a Pulitzer Prize nomination. His career and book,
The Rodrigo Chronicles, were described by Stanley Fish in the following terms:
Richard Delgado is a triple pioneer. He was the first to question free speech ideology; he
and a few others invented critical race theory; and he is both a theorist and an exemplar
of the importance of storytelling in the workings of the law. This volume brings all of
Delgado’s strengths together in a stunning performance.
Professor Delgado lives with his wife, legal writer Jean Stefancic, in Tuscaloosa,
Alabama where he holds the title of Professor and John J. Sparkman Chair of Law at
the University of Alabama School of Law.
Jean Stefancic, Professor of Law, Clement Research Affiliate,
University of Alabama School of Law
Jean Stefancic is Professor of Law & Clement Research Affiliate at
the University of Alabama School of Law, where she teaches and
writes about civil rights, law reform, social change, and legal
scholarship. She has written and co-authored over 40 articles and
17 books, many with her husband Richard Delgado, with whom
she shared writing residencies at Bellagio, Bogliasco, and Centrum.
Their book, Critical White Studies: Looking Behind the Mirror,
won a Gustavus Myers Award for outstanding book on human
rights in North America. Her book, How Lawyers Lose Their Way,
examines how law practice can stifle creativity. Professors Stefancic and Delgado also
serve as co-editors for two book series.
Before joining the Alabama faculty, Professor Stefancic spent ten years at the University
of Colorado Law School, where she served as an affiliate of the Latino/a Research
& Policy Center and on the advisory committee of the Center of the American West.
During her years at the University of Pittsburgh she was Research Professor of
Law & Derrick Bell Scholar; at Seattle University she was Research Professor of Law.
Emory University School of Law7
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
Tejinder Singh, Counsel, Goldstein & Russell, P.C.
Derek Bambauer, Professor of Law, University of Arizona College of Law
Tejinder Singh is a counsel at the law firm Goldstein & Russell,
P.C., which focuses on litigation in the Supreme Court of the United
States. He represents parties and amici before the Court and lower
courts on a broad range of issues, including the First Amendment.
In 2014, he argued and won the case Lane v. Franks on behalf of
petitioner Edward Lane, where the Court held that public
employees are entitled to First Amendment protection for their
subpoenaed testimony even when that testimony relates to the
subject matter of their employment. Tejinder has been named to the
National Law Journal’s 2014 Washington DC Rising Stars list, and to the 2015 Super
Lawyers Washington DC Rising Stars list. In addition to his litigation work, Tejinder is
a regular contributor to SCOTUSblog.
Derek Bambauer is Professor of Law at the University of Arizona,
where he teaches Internet law and intellectual property.
His research treats Internet censorship, cybersecurity, and
intellectual property. He has also written technical articles on data
recovery and fault tolerance, and on deployment of software
upgrades. A former principal systems engineer at Lotus
Development Corp. (part of IBM), Professor Bambauer spent two
years as a Research Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet &
Society at Harvard Law School. At the Berkman Center, he was a
member of the OpenNet Initiative, an academic consortium that tests and studies
Internet censorship in countries such as China, Iran, and Vietnam. He is one of the
authors of Info/Law, a popular blog that addresses Internet law, intellectual property,
and information law. He holds an AB from Harvard College and a JD from Harvard
Law School.
Gerald Weber, Principal, The Weber Law Offices, Adjunct Professor, Emory
University School of Law, Georgia State College of Law
Gerry Weber is principal in The Weber Law Offices and focuses on
constitutional, civil rights, libel and media law and general
litigation. Gerry Weber served for 17 years as Legal Director of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. He also currently serves
as a Senior Staff Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights,
and is an Adjunct Professor at Emory University School of Law and
Georgia State College of Law in constitutional litigation, media law
and the First Amendment. Gerry clerked for the Honorable Carolyn
Dineen King, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for
the Fifth Circuit.
He was named one of the 21 Young Lawyers Leading Us Into the 21st Century by the
American Bar Association and Top 40 Achievers under 40 by Georgia Trend Magazine.
Gerry Weber has litigated against federal, state and local governments and agencies and
some of the largest corporations in the United States. He has successfully struck down
numerous laws ranging from state restrictions on the Internet to state laws barring
fornication and sodomy. He also has chalked up one of the largest monetary awards in
the history of the State of Georgia—a $440 million judgment in an international human
rights case against a Serbian government torturer.
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The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
Caroline Mala Corbin, Professor of Law, University of Miami School of Law
Caroline Mala Corbin is Professor of Law at the University of
Miami School of Law. She teaches US Constitutional Law I, US
Constitutional Law II, First Amendment, the Religion Clauses, and
Feminism and the First Amendment. Her scholarship focuses on the
First Amendment’s speech and religion clauses, particularly their
intersection with equality issues. Professor Corbin’s articles have
been published in the New York University Law Review, UCLA
Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Boston
University Law Review, and Iowa Law Review, among others.
Her writing has also appeared in the online editions of Harvard Law Review, Texas
Law Review and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. As well as writing for
blogs such as Concurring Opinions, ACSblog, and Jurist, Professor Corbin is a frequent
commentator for local and national media on First Amendment questions.
Professor Corbin joined the Miami law faculty in 2008 after completing a postdoctoral
research fellowship at Columbia Law School. Before her fellowship, she litigated civil
rights cases as a pro bono fellow at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP and as an attorney at
the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project. She also clerked for the Honorable M. Blane
Michael of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Professor Corbin
holds a BA from Harvard University and a JD from Columbia Law School. She was
a James Kent Scholar while at Columbia Law School, where she also won the Pauline
Berman Heller Prize and the James A. Elkins Prize for Constitutional Law.
Emory University School of Law9
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
David Han, Associate Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law
David Han is an Associate Professor of Law at Pepperdine
University School of Law. His scholarship focuses on freedom of
speech issues and tort law, and his articles have appeared in the
New York University Law Review, William & Mary Law Review,
and Wisconsin Law Review. Before joining the Pepperdine faculty,
Professor Han served as an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering
at New York University School of Law and practiced as a litigation
associate with Munger, Tolles & Olson, where he worked on a
broad range of trial and appellate matters. Immediately following
law school, Professor Han served as a law clerk for the Honorable Michael Boudin on
the First Circuit Court of Appeals and for the Honorable David H. Souter on the
Supreme Court of the United States.
Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel, American Center for Law & Justice and
European Centre for Law & Justice
Jay Sekulow is Chief Counsel of the American Center for
Law and Justice and the European Centre for Law and Justice.
An accomplished and internationally respected judicial advocate,
Sekulow has presented oral arguments before the Supreme Court of
the United States in numerous cases in the defense of constitutional
freedoms, especially those involving religious liberty. The National
Law Journal has twice named Sekulow one of the 100 most
influential lawyers in America. He is the author of numerous
publications and legal articles. His most recent book, Rise of ISIS,
reached number one on the New York Times bestseller’s list. In 2014, Sekulow was
honored by the Greek Orthodox Order of St. Andrew the Apostle with the prestigious
Athenagoras Human Rights Award. Previous recipients of the award include Presidents
Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Arch-Bishop Desmond Tutu. In 2014,
Dr. Sekulow was appointed a Senior Fellow at Emory University School of Law.
SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS
Thomas C. Arthur, L.Q.C. Lamar Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
Tom Arthur has been a faculty member at the Emory University
School of Law since 1982, specializing in antitrust, civil procedure/
jurisdiction, First Amendment, and administrative law. In addition
to serving as a member of the faculty, Tom has served as dean
(2002–2005), Emory’s interim vice provost for international affairs
and interim director of Emory’s Halle Institute (2000–2002),
the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs (1989–1997),
and was co-director of the law school’s American Law Center in
Moscow (1996–1997).
Prior to joining the Emory faculty, Professor Arthur had been a partner at the law firm
of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, DC. In Atlanta, he served as counsel to Trotter,
Smith & Jacobs from 1984 to 1992. He is a member of the American Law Institute
and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and is a member of the D.C. and
Virginia bars.
Professor Arthur is noted for his scholarly contributions in antitrust and federal
jurisdiction. His major antitrust law are cited in many casebooks and treatises, as are his
Emory Law Journal articles (co-authored with Professor Richard D. Freer) criticizing
the supplemental jurisdiction statute (28 U.S.C § 1367).
Professor Arthur holds an AB from Duke University, where he was an Angier B. Duke
scholar and a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a JD from Yale University. He and his
wife, Carolyn, have two sons.
Jay Sekulow received his PhD from Regent University, with a dissertation on American
Legal History, is an honors graduate of Mercer Law School, where he served on the
Mercer Law Review, and an honors graduate of Mercer University. Sekulow completed
an Executive Program at Vanderbilt University’s Owen School of Management. He was
appointed a Visiting Fellow of Oxford University at Harris Manchester College where
he lectured on Middle East Affairs and International Law. He completed postdoctoral
studies at Oxford University’s History, Politics and Society program on Religion and the
Middle East. Jay Sekulow has also served as a faculty member for the Office of Legal
Education at the United States Department of Justice and has lectured around the globe.
Immediately following graduation from law school, he served as a tax trial attorney in
the Office of Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service, United States Department
of the Treasury.
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The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
Emory University School of Law11
RANDOLPH W. THROWER
Randolph W. Thrower was a leader in
virtually every endeavor of his long and
active life, which included a remarkable
legal career, a dedication to public service,
and a devotion to Emory University.
Thrower graduated from Emory University (BPh 1934; JD 1936, first honors).
He joined the law firm of Sutherland, Tuttle & Brennan in 1936, practiced
in the firm’s Atlanta and Washington offices, and was proud to be a partner
at Sutherland until his death. During World War II he served in the FBI as a
Special Agent (1942–1943) and as Captain in the United States Marine Corps,
with overseas service in the Philippines and Okinawa (1944–1945).
He returned to the firm and practiced primarily in the area of federal taxation,
including tax controversies, litigation, estate planning and administration,
and general corporate and individual tax related matters.
From 1969 to 1971 Thrower served as Commissioner of the Internal Revenue
Service. In that position he worked through many high profile and contentious
issues, including the development of a policy to deny tax exempt status for
private schools that discriminate on the basis of race. But the most difficult
issues were not visible to the public. Thrower steadfastly refused efforts by
the Nixon White House to misuse the IRS, and as a result, was directed by
the President to resign. He quietly returned to the practice of law; only after
the Watergate hearings did he understand what he had been dealing with and
speak publicly of his experiences. Thrower’s integrity, courage, and fairness in
these and other matters were widely recognized and applauded.
Thrower was President of the American Bar Foundation, the research arm of
the ABA, and served for ten years on its executive committee. He was Chair
of the ABA’s Section on Taxation and served in the ABA House of Delegates
for 17 years. He was a member of the ABA Commission on Women in the
Profession from its inception in 1987 until 1993, and was Chair of the State
Bar Committee on the Involvement of Women and Minorities in the Profession.
He was one of the founders and the first president of the Court of Federal
RANDOLPH W. THROWER
Claims Bar Association. He was a founding trustee, in 1963, of the Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. He was also President of the Atlanta
Bar Association, the Lawyers Club of Atlanta, and the Atlanta Legal Aid
Society. From 1980 to 1992 he served as chair of the City of Atlanta’s Board
of Ethics and was co-chair of an investigation into allegations of cheating
on police promotion exams. Well into his nineties he was Chair of the
Georgia Wilderness Institutes, which provide alternatives to incarceration for
criminally-delinquent youth.
In 1993 the ABA awarded him the American Bar Association Medal, its
highest honor, for exceptionally distinguished service by a lawyer to the cause
of American jurisprudence. Thrower received many other accolades, including
honorary degrees from Emory University (1984) and Wesleyan College (2006),
the American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Eleventh Circuit,
the Leadership Award of the Atlanta Bar Association, the Founders Award
of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Lifetime AntiDefamation League Achievement Award, a special tribute from the Atlanta
Legal Aid Society on its 75th anniversary, and the Coverdell Good Government
Award. In 2008 Thrower was honored by the Fulton County Daily Report,
which described him as a “Living Legend of the Law.”
Thrower passed away at the age of 100 in March of 2014. The Emory Law
Journal and Emory University School of Law are privileged to honor his
memory and accomplishments by continuing to host this Symposium which
bears his name and whose success results from his contributions and support.
The Emory Law Journal thanks the members of the Thrower Symposium Committee:
Patricia Thrower Barmeyer, Wilson G. Barmeyer, Judge Frank Hull, John Mayoue,
Joseph Blanco, Dean Robert Schapiro, Professor Julie Seaman, and Professor Charles
Shanor for their support of the Symposium.
We also thank Amy Tozer, Beth Damon, Rhonda Heermans, Alyssa Ashdown, Eric
Jackson, Lisa Ashmore, and Carletta Gunby for their invaluable assistance and fortitude.
Finally, we thank Professor Alexander Tsesis for help and guidance in the overall
realization of this year’s Symposium.
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The 34th Annual Randolph W. Thrower Symposium
Emory University School of Law13