Samuel Bagenstos

Samuel Bagenstos is Professor of Law at the University of Michigan School of Law. He specializes in constitutional and civil rights litigation. He is author of numerous law review articles and of Law and the Contradictions of the Disability Rights Movement (Yale University Press, 2009) and Disability Rights Law: Cases and Materials (Foundation Press, 2010). From 2009-2011, he served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, the number-two official in the Civil Rights Division. Today, he frequently consults with civil rights organizations and remains an active appellate and Supreme Court litigator in civil rights and federalism cases. Bagenstos has also testified before Congress on several occasions, including in support of the Fair Pay Restoration Act, the ADA Amendments Act, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, as well as on the application of the ADA to advancing technology and the problem of mental illness in prisons. Prior to joining the University of Michigan, Bagenstos was on the law faculties at Harvard and Washington University. And prior to joining academia, he clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt on the Ninth Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the U.S. Supreme Court. He earned his BA with highest honors and highest distinction from the University of North Carolina and his J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.