Robert Allen Sedler (September 11, 1935 – January 4, 2025) was an American law professor and attorney, who taught at

Wayne State University Law School Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law) is the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit. Wayne Law is located in Midtown, Detroit's Cultural Center. Founded in 1927, the law school offers juris doctor (J.D.), master of laws (LL.M.), ...

for over 40 years, specializing in Constitutional law. Sedler began teaching at Wayne Law in 1977, prior to which he was a professor at the

University of Kentucky College of Law The University of Kentucky J. David Rosenberg College of Law, also known as UK Rosenberg College of Law, is the law school of the University of Kentucky located in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded initially from a law program at Transylvania Univers ...

. Sedler retired in December 2020, after finishing the fall semester.

Life and career

Sedler was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

on September 11, 1935. Sedler graduated from

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of seventeen undergraduate and graduate schools and colle ...

in 1956, and later obtained a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from the

University of Pittsburgh School of Law The University of Pittsburgh School of Law (Pitt Law) is the law school of the University of Pittsburgh, a public research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1895 and became a charter member of the Association of American ...

, in 1959. Sedler taught law courses in

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

at the former Haile Selassie I University (now

Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa University (; AAU) is a national university located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It is the oldest university in Ethiopia. AAU has thirteen campuses. Twelve of these are situated in Addis Ababa, and one is located in Bishoftu, about away. ...

) in the 1960s. Sedler worked with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Kentucky starting in the 1960s, serving as the ACLU of Kentucky's first general counsel, from 1967 to 1975. While with the ACLU, Sedler opposed

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

and challenges to the

First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

. Sedler wrote dozens of essays on First Amendment and civil rights jurisprudence. Sedler also wrote two books and dozens of articles on Ethiopian law. He authored one textbook, ''Constitutional Law in the United States'', and a book on

conflict of laws Conflict of laws (also called private international law) is the set of rules or laws a jurisdiction applies to a Legal case, case, Transactional law, transaction, or other occurrence that has connections to more than one jurisdiction."Conflict o ...

, ''Across State Lines.'' Sedler died on January 4, 2025, at age 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sedler, Robert 1935 births 2025 deaths University of Pittsburgh School of Law alumni University of Pittsburgh alumni American legal scholars Wayne State University faculty Conflict of laws scholars Lawyers from Pittsburgh