Stephen Roger Barnett (December 25, 1935 – October 13, 2009) was an American law professor and legal scholar who campaigned against the

Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 The Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 was an Act of the United States Congress, signed by President Richard Nixon, authorizing the formation of joint operating agreements among competing newspaper operations within the same media market area. It e ...

and the effects its antitrust exemptions had on newspaper consolidation. He also criticized the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

for practices that hid information from the public. Barnett was born on December 25, 1935, in the

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Kings County is the most populous Administrative divisions of New York (state)#County, county in the State of New York, ...

borough of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. He grew up in

West Hartford, Connecticut West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquially known as "West Hartford Center," or simply "The ...

, and attended

Loomis Chaffee School The Loomis Chaffee School (; LC or Loomis) is a selective independent, coeducational, college preparatory school for boarding and day students in grades 9–12, including postgraduate students, located in Windsor, Connecticut, seven miles north ...

. He attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

on full scholarship, from which he earned an undergraduate degree in 1957, where he served as president of ''

The Harvard Crimson ''The Harvard Crimson'' is the student newspaper of Harvard University and was founded in 1873. Run entirely by Harvard College undergraduates, it served for many years as the only daily newspaper in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Beginning in the f ...

''. At

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

Barnett served as note editor of the ''

Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...

''; he was awarded his law degree in 1962. Following his graduation, he clerked for

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate j ...

Judge

Henry J. Friendly Henry Jacob Friendly (July 3, 1903 – March 11, 1986) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as a circuit judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1959 until his death in 1986. Friendly was one of the most p ...

and then for Justice William J. Brennan of the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point ...

. After a few years at the law firm of

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP (known as Cleary Gottlieb) is an American multinational law firm headquartered at One Liberty Plaza in New York City. Known as a white shoe law firm, Cleary employs over 1,200 lawyers worldwide. History The ...

, he was hired by

Berkeley Law School The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (commonly known as Berkeley Law or UC Berkeley School of Law) is the law school of the University of California, Berkeley, a public research university in Berkeley, California. It is one of 1 ...

, where he spent almost the entirety of his career until his retirement in 2003.Grimes, William
"Stephen Barnett, a Leading Legal Scholar, Dies at 73"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', October 21, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2009. The exception was a stint as an assistant solicitor general in the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and a ...

, where Barnett argued cases before the Supreme Court from 1977 until 1979.Egelko, Bob
"Stephen Barnett, UC law professor, dies"
''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pap ...

'', October 21, 2009. Accessed October 22, 2009. A leading critic of the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970, which was intended to allow multiple newspapers in the same city to survive by forming joint operating agreements to share revenues and cut costs, Barnett argued that the unintended consequence of the legislation was the consolidation and development of large nationwide newspaper chains. These agreements often resulted in the demise of the weaker paper once the agreement was ended. In his article ''The Dog That Did Not Bark'', Barnett was critical of a practice called "depublication", under which the

can at its choice, or if requested, order that a decision by the

California Court of Appeals The California Courts of Appeal are the state intermediate appellate courts in the U.S. state of California. The state is geographically divided along county lines into six appellate districts.

be excluded from publication, which means that it becomes impossible to cite the decision in later legal actions,CRC Rule 8.1115. making the court less open and accountable. His criticism of the Commission on Judicial Performance in California led to a 1999 decision requiring it to disclose how each member voted in actions it takes. Barnett died at age 73 died on October 13, 2009, in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

, of

cardiac arrest Cardiac arrest is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. It is a medical emergency that, without immediate medical intervention, will result in sudden cardiac death within minutes. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and possib ...

. He was survived by his wife, Karine, as well as by a son, Alexander Barnett, and a stepson, Levon Barnett.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Barnett, Stephen 1935 births 2009 deaths The Harvard Crimson people Harvard Law School alumni Journalists from New York City Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States Lawyers from Brooklyn Loomis Chaffee School alumni People associated with Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton Scholars of competition law UC Berkeley School of Law faculty 20th-century American lawyers

See also

References