Levin College of Law
Welcome to UF LAW

Support the UF Law Anti-Racism Resolution

During the week of June 1, 2020, UF Law hosted two discussions with students, faculty, and staff on the recent killings of Black women and men by the police, the newly energized nationwide actions protesting police brutality and systemic racism, and how our community might participate in similar actions and effect change.  During the Wellness Wednesday discussion with students on June 3, 2020, several students urged, among other things, that the College of Law issue a strong antiracist statement.  On the following Friday, June 5, 2020, staff and faculty met and affirmed a desire to make a clear statement of antiracism and a commitment to action.

An ad hoc group of UF Law faculty drafted the below resolution in consultation with UF Law’s Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations.

To support the resolution, you may click here to sign: https://forms.gle/WgZEb1sAatHfWX2w7. The list below will be updated often.

We, the undersigned, of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, hereby resolve:

WHEREAS, we condemn the police violence and tactics that have led to the killings of thousands of Black people, most recently the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, and recognize and condemn the broad pattern of racism and injustice in policing and more broadly the criminal-legal system that is systemic, deeply rooted, and pervasive in the lives of Black men, Black women, and Black children.

WHEREAS, we recognize and condemn the pervasive inequalities in health care and the social determinants of health that have caused the disproportionate burden of COVID19 on the Black community and other communities of color, both in rates of illness and in deaths.

WHEREAS, we recognize the inequalities that have been amplified by the pandemic are widespread, exposing the intersecting systems that subordinate by race, gender, socio economics, sexuality, gender identity, but relentlessly to undermine the life and health of the Black community.

WHEREAS, we recognize the need for the creation of an anti-Black racism model that recognizes the multidimensional axes of racism’s impacts and that enables the redress of these harms and achieves those unfulfilled principles of justice, equality, human dignity, and anti-racism.

WHEREAS, we recognize and condemn the pervasive inequalities in every system that affects the lives of Black people and affirm that systemic racism is not limited to the police, the courts, or the corrections’ system; we recognize the racial inequities that exist also in education, employment, economic opportunities, housing, and social supports, among others.

WHEREAS, we recognize and acknowledge the deep history of injustice and racism, and the trauma it causes, that has its roots in U.S. chattel slavery, in our Constitution, in the failed promise of Reconstruction, in the unfulfilled principles of equality, justice, and freedom for all.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the undersigned as individuals and as a whole, will act to promote justice, equality, human dignity, and anti-racism individually and collectively.  We are committed to self-examination, engagement in difficult and uncomfortable work on race and racism in its multidimensional manifestations, self-correction, and positive actions for change that live up to our collective commitment to our Constitutional principles of true equality, and the promise of a just and fair legal system.  We will act by our teaching, service, and research to contribute to the training of antiracist lawyers and producing antiracist scholarship, and support community, legislative, and other avenues of change.  We will act vigorously to support a renewed commitment to the excellence of our law school by becoming an example of recruitment, outreach, and support for Black students.  We will act by continuing to devote our energy to the long, hard process of change, and not limit our commitment to this moment of change.

Andrew Hammond
Stacey Steinberg
Nancy E. Dowd
Shannon Sumerlin
William Spencer-Hampton
David Hasen
Stephania Rendel
Stephanie O. Comstock
Betty Donaldson
Jerron Wheeler
Taylor Cavaliere
David M. Walsh, JD 2020
Patricia Morgan
Rae A. Powers
Sarah Niss
Laura Ann Rosenbury
Michael Alan Wolf
Kebin Lopez
Brian Ankeny
Angelo Arrieta, J.D., Class of 2020
Colin Milwood
Merritt McAlister
Gaetano D’Anna
Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol
Ebony Love
Courtney Bullock
Sloane Henry
Max Eichenblatt 2020
Rebecca A Driggers
Judy Ann Clausen 1995
Matthew J. Ossorio
Henrietta Gurri McBee
James D. McGuire
Jason Nance
Abdel Reyes Torres
Joshua Gloster
Vittoria Luchini
Michael Farley
Ruth McIlhenny
Jennifer Mary Zedalis
Henry Wihnyk
Robert Rhee
Devin Moore
Alyson Flournoy
Umbar Malik
Taariq Lewis
Scott R. Slaney
Aaron Cook
William F. Hamilton
Juwan Parrish
Janine N Kucaba
Karen Middlekauff, Esq. (JD 12)
Rachel Arnow-Richman
Heather B. Brock
Whitney Untiedt
Lee-ford Tritt
J. Carter Andersen, Bush Ross P.A.
barry r davidson
Lea Johnston
Richard C. Smith
D. Bruce Hoffman, JD 1992
Robin K. Davis
Isabella Limonta
Guy E. Whitesman
Cameron Beilly
Anne Marie Tamburro
Sophia Serrao
Julian C. Velez
Jonathan R. Cohen
Ricardo Arana
Taylor Cavaliere
Jeffrey Harrison
Victor Fox
Austin Vining
Michael Smith
Stephanie Bornstein
Cheryl Gordon
Oscar A Sanchez
Taylor Blas J.D. ‘20
Henrietta Gurri McBee
Andrew Winden
Danaya Wright
Taariq Lewis
Andrea Stone Hartley
Max Eichenblatt 2020
Gary Lee Printy
KK Russell-Brown
Jon Mills
Sarah Wolking
Taylor J. Norman
Andrew Hughes
Kennedy J. Rub
Nyja Brown
Neil H. Buchanan
Becky Powhatan Kelley
Isabella Limonta
Victoria A. Redde
Oscar A Sanchez
Heather B. Brock
Nicole Kibert Basler
Joseph Beguiristain
Heather B. Brock
Marsha O’Mara Henry c/o 2003
William Spencer-Hampton
Taylor J. Norman
Adam J. Duso, J.D. ’20
Ana Paladino (JD Class of 2020)
Mark Fenster
Bill Hoppe class of 1967
Matthew Posgay
Glenn J. Waldman, Esq.
Sarah Hock
Phillip J. Mays
William A. McBride
Gaetano D’Anna
Jeffrey Davis
Elizabeth Rowe
Effie D. Silva
Brandon Pongracz
Donald C. Peters
James C. Cunningham, Jr.
Martha Barnett
Kaley J. Thomas
Christine A. Klein
Scott G. Hawkins
Frankie Berardi
Brandon Palacio
William H. Page
Whitney Smith
Allison Mangan
Katherine Thanos
Jensen Carter
Kristine Lambert, BS 91,JD 94
Cynthia Yanez
Jane O’Connell
Silvia Menendez
Charlene Luke
Donielle Nardi
D. Daniel Sokol
Joan Flocks
Brad M. Beall
Dorothy M. Russ. (JD 08)
Kerry Hudson
Dominique Burkhardt (JD ‘12)
Makala Furse
Alejandra S. Alvarez
Tobi Lebowitz
Lisa M. De Sanctis
Chris Moser
Michael Dingess JD18
Sara Kopetman
Patrick Sherman Brathwaite
Yolanda Jackson
Elizabeth Hilkin
Joshua Rieger
Ben Hutson
James D. Pretorius JD Class of 2020
Steven A. Maxwell
Maggie Temple-Smith
Jonathan Barry-Blocker (JD 2009)
Giselle Gutierrez
Kenneth Nunn
Caitlin Delaney
Debbie Menoher
Megan Casserlie
Joe Kaleita
Kelli Murray
Rebekah M. Allison
Stephanie McNeff
Christopher W. Croce, Esq. (J.D., 2015)
Tamar Peltz
Jeff Lloyd
George R. Moraitis
Alex Zakharia
Diane Baccus Horsley
David Gardner 1994
DeLane E. Anderson, Jr., J.D., Class of 1969
Barry L. Zisser, JD Class of 1962
A. J. Donelson, JD 1978
Maury William Enneking Ivey
Charles Modell
Laura J. Varela, BA 1991, JD 1994
Charles Modell
R. Kevin Sharbaugh (JD ’10)
Christopher Grobbel (2012)
Peter Baker 1978
Rachel Malkowski Ortiz
Mark J. Heise
Samuel Alexander
Lawrence Lambert
Aaron Kelley
Alan J. Nisberg, JD/MBA Class of 1992
Barbara Bost McGriff
Stephen Sessums
Alicia Phillip Williams (JD 08)
Peter Baker 1978
Anjali Sharma, JD Class of 2017
Lori Wojciechowski
Amy Levenberg Terwilleger
Joanne Fanizza
Peter M MacNamara
Anjali Sharma, JD Class of 2017
Adam R. Artigliere
Richard Stern
Martha L. Cochran
Richard F. Wall
Cheryl Lynn Virta JD 1992
C. Andrew Roy
Stephen Hoffman, JD 1986
Thomas Hodas, Esquire
James Hauser
Genevieve (Turner) Baisden, Class of 2012
Aubrey Ducker
Daniel del Rio Perez, Esq.
jack bierley
John C Taylor, Jr.
Noelle Lattimore
Austin H. Maslanik
William B. Graham
Nadia B. Ahmad
James Hauser
Frederick D. Smith
Abby Ivey
Jim Valenti
Henrietta Gurri McBee
Richard Stern
Roger L. D. Williams J. D. Class of 1985
Seth Endo
Sarah Louise Bishop
Byron Flagg
Gregory Forrer
Elizabeth T. Lear
W Thomas Wackeen
Lee D. Gunn IV
Kaley Tanase
Daniel F. Visoiu
Joseph Tong
Harry F. Chiles
Rosemary Barkett, class of 1970
James C. Cunningham, Jr.
Janine N Kucaba
Leila Waite
James D. McGuire
Gail L. Mathapo
Scott G. Hawkins
Donald C. Peters
M Smith
William Hamilton
Jason P. Nance
Mary Elizabeth Adkins
Elizabeth Dale
Ben L Fernandez
Jennifer Zedalis
Maryam Jamshidi
Ruth M. McIlhenny JD 01
Teresa Drake
Joan Stearns Johnsen
Clay Calvert
Annie Brett
Kristen V. Hardy
Amy Stein
Megan Saia

 

 

 


Updated 9.22.2021

Published: June 15th, 2020

Category: News

Comments are closed.

Recent News

News Archive

University of Florida Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive
PO Box 117620
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 273-0804
Text-Only Version

Tools

Website

Quick Links

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.