John Marshall Law School Professor Cecil Hunt has been named The Edward T. and Noble W. Lee Chair in Constitutional Law for the 2018-2019 academic year.
During his term as Lee Chair, Professor Hunt will research and write an article titled “In the Black and the Smell of Money: Privatizing Prisons at the Price of Human Rights, Racial Discrimination, and the 14th Amendment’s Protection of Equal Rights, in the Age of Racialized Mass Incarceration.” This article will examine the intersection between private for-profit prisons, mass incarceration, racial discrimination and their fundamental incompatibility with human rights and the 14th amendment’s constitutional guarantee of equal protection.
Hunt has established a national and international reputation for his expertise in the area of honor, dignity, human rights, equal protection, race and mass incarceration. His articles have appeared in scholarly books published in the Netherlands and Greece, and in law journals across the country. Hunt has spoken widely about those subjects at academic conferences in Europe and the U.S. and is regarded as one of the primary experts in this field.
Hunt is the eighth professor to receive this honor. Professor Donald Beschle, who was the previous Lee Chair, focused his research on first amendment speech protection and the purposes and history of the speech clause.
Edward T. Lee and his son, Noble W. Lee, collectively served John Marshall for 90 years, leading the school as deans for 65 of those years. The Lee Chair in Constitutional Law was established in 2010 to honor their contributions to the law school and the legal profession, and their shared interest in constitutional law.
Hunt has taught at John Marshall since 2004. He teaches Property, Secured Transactions, and Human Rights, Race & Mass Incarceration. Before joining John Marshall, Hunt taught at Suffolk University Law School, Touro Law Center and the University of Seattle Law School. Hunt received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his law degree from Boston College Law School. He was recently named a Top 100 lawyer by The National Black Lawyers Organization.
