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UF Law’s Roadmap for Racial Justice

Dean Laura Rosenbury shared the following message with the UF Law Community on June 17, 2020.

Dear UF Law Community,

I am indebted to the many students, staff, faculty, and alumni who have exhorted UF Law to seize this moment to fight for racial justice, both at home on our campus and throughout the state and nation. I am grateful to our W. George Allen Chapter of the Black Law Students Association (BLSA) for issuing the first call to action, and to our Student Bar Association (SBA) and Latino Law Students Association (LLSA) for quickly following with statements of their own. Many students, staff, faculty, and alumni have shared their pain and their hope during open discussions, through email, and on social media, including a powerful letter authored by students and signed by over 200 students and recent alums. A faculty-led initiative also produced a powerful anti-racist resolution that many of you have signed. I hear you, and I thank you.

The College of Law is committed to anti-racist action and to supporting the anti-racist initiatives of our community members. Anti-Blackness, white supremacy, and other forms of racism have deep roots in our society, including within the legal system and the legal profession. Many of you have long fought for change, challenging and enduring the pervasiveness of systemic racism. We value your existing work and your ongoing commitment to change, and we welcome your ideas for how we might better support your work. We also encourage all members of our community to come together in new ways to work for change in the near and long terms.

Here you may find a summary of how the College of Law, as an institution, is translating what we have heard from many of you into concrete action. Some highlights include:

• Partnering with the 11 other law schools in Florida to create a Virtual Institute for Racial Justice
• Adding 10 new Associate Directors to our Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations
• Forming a new Racial Justice Research Assistant Corps
• Implementing required anti-racism and anti-bias training for all faculty, staff, and students
• Continuing our efforts to diversify our faculty, staff, and student body
• Identifying and combating systemic racism within the College of Law
• Developing ways to incorporate racial justice throughout our curriculum

Much of this work is already in progress, thanks to the steadfast work of Michelle Smith, our Assistant Dean for Inclusion, and many other committed staff and faculty. We will redouble our efforts with your feedback and input. Other initiatives are new, and we welcome your feedback about how to refine them.

We are committed to progress. Black lives matter, and we will actively fight systemic racism in all its forms, including police brutality, racial profiling, persistent racial disparities, and inequalities on our campus. We are committed to making the College of Law an inclusive and welcoming environment for every single member of our community and to providing all students with the tools necessary to uphold and improve the rule of law for decades to come.

LAR

Laura Ann Rosenbury
Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law

Published: July 15th, 2020

Category: News

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.