Jamal Greene

{{Infobox academic

| name = Jamal Greene

| image = Legal Scholars Discuss Unprecedented GOP Obstructionism (25123222862).jpg

| caption = Greene speaks at an event hosted by the Senate Democratic Caucus in 2016

| birth_date =

| birth_place = Brooklyn, New York

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = law professor, author

| education = Harvard University (BA)
Yale University (JD)

| relatives = Brenda M. Greene (mother)
Talib Kweli (brother)

| awards =

| module = {{Listen |embed= yes |filename= The Value & Costs of Free Speech (Jamal Greene).ogg |title= Greene's voice|type= speech|description= On free speech cases }}

| workplaces = Columbia University

}}

Jamal K. Greene is an American legal scholar whose scholarship focuses on constitutional law. He is the Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School.{{Cite web|title=Jamal Greene|url=https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/jamal-greene|access-date=2021-04-22|publisher=Columbia Law School|language=en|archive-date=February 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215034705/https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/jamal-greene|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/constitutional-law-scholar-joins-columbia-law-school-faculty|title=Constitutional Law Scholar Joins Columbia Law School Faculty|publisher=Columbia Law School|date=March 4, 2008|access-date=April 22, 2021|archive-date=November 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129015234/https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/constitutional-law-scholar-joins-columbia-law-school-faculty|url-status=live}} Greene was one of four inaugural co-chairs of Facebook's Oversight Board, a body that adjudicates Facebook's content moderation decisions.{{Cite news|last=Culliford|first=Elizabeth|date=2021-04-13|title=Factbox: What to know about Facebook's content oversight board|url=https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-know-about-facebooks-content-oversight-board-2021-04-13/|access-date=2021-04-22|publisher=Reuters|archive-date=April 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210418075054/https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-know-about-facebooks-content-oversight-board-2021-04-13/|url-status=live}}{{cite web |title=Announcing the First Members of the Oversight Board |url=https://www.oversightboard.com/news/announcing-the-first-members-of-the-oversight-board/ |website=Oversight Board |access-date=3 June 2020 |archive-date=January 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210123052204/https://www.oversightboard.com/news/announcing-the-first-members-of-the-oversight-board/ |url-status=live }}

Early life and education

Greene was raised in Park Slope, Brooklyn, New York City.[https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn-rapper-talib-kweli-knew-hip-hop-fence-join-occupy-wall-street-activists-article-1.960924 Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli knew it was hip to hop fence and join Occupy Wall Street activists] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924121911/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn-rapper-talib-kweli-knew-hip-hop-fence-join-occupy-wall-street-activists-article-1.960924 |date=September 24, 2020 }} Tracy Connor. New York Daily News. Oct 10, 2011. Retrieved Sept 11, 2021.[https://youthcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/High-School-SEL-Program-Overview-03.2020.pdf Color Me Different] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230427221755/https://youthcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/High-School-SEL-Program-Overview-03.2020.pdf |date=April 27, 2023 }} High School SEL Program Overview 03.2020. pg 42. YouthComm.org. 2020. Retrieved Sept 11, 2021. His mother, Brenda Greene, is an English professor at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, and his father is an administrator at Adelphi University. His brother is the rapper Talib Kweli.{{Cite news|last=Connor|first=Tracy|date=2011-10-10|title=Brooklyn rapper Talib Kweli knew it was hip to hop fence and join Occupy Wall Street activists|work=New York Daily News|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn-rapper-talib-kweli-knew-hip-hop-fence-join-occupy-wall-street-activists-article-1.960924|url-status=live|access-date=2021-04-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924121911/https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn-rapper-talib-kweli-knew-hip-hop-fence-join-occupy-wall-street-activists-article-1.960924|archive-date=September 24, 2020}}{{Cite magazine|last=Shafrir|first=Doree|title=Mama's Boys|date=2009-07-20|url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/07/27/mamas-boys|access-date=2021-04-22|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us|archive-date=March 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210311045150/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/07/27/mamas-boys|url-status=live}} Greene attended Hunter College High School, where he was a center fielder for the school baseball team. He obtained a B.A. from Harvard College in 1999, where he was a sports writer for The Harvard Crimson.{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/writer/88/Jamal_K._Greene/|title=WRITER: Jamal K. Greene|publisher=The Harvard Crimson|access-date=April 22, 2021|archive-date=December 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223032810/http://www.thecrimson.com/writer/88/Jamal_K._Greene/|url-status=live}} One of his last pieces for that publication reflected on his experience as a "black kid from Brooklyn" spending four years "in the Ivy bubble".{{cite web|url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/10/6/end-of-the-line-pi-wore/|title=End of the Line|first1=Jamal K.|last1=Greene|publisher=The Harvard Crimson|date=October 6, 1999|access-date=April 22, 2021|archive-date=June 5, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150605072945/http://www.thecrimson.com/article/1999/10/6/end-of-the-line-pi-wore/|url-status=live}}

After graduation, Greene worked at Sports Illustrated. He received a JD from Yale Law School in 2005 and clerked for Judge Guido Calabresi of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, from 2005 to 2006, and for Justice John Paul Stevens of the Supreme Court of the United States, from 2006 to 2007.

Academic career

In 2008, Greene joined the Columbia Law School faculty.

Other jobs

In 2020, he was named to Facebook's Oversight Board, an entity established to provide occasional precedential decisions regarding selected appeals of content decisions made by the company. He left the Board in January 2023.{{Cite web |title=Updates on Oversight Board membership |url=https://www.oversightboard.com/news/771690787717546-updates-on-oversight-board-membership/ |access-date=2024-02-22 |website=Oversight Board |date=April 5, 2023 |language=en}}

Writing

Greene is the author of How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession With Rights Is Tearing America Apart (2021). The book argues that United States constitutional law inappropriately grants strong protection to a small set of constitutional rights, as opposed to more limited protection to a broader set of rights.{{Cite magazine|last=Moyn|first=Samuel|author-link=Samuel Moyn|date=2021-03-09|title=Why Do Americans Have So Few Rights?|magazine=The New Republic|url=https://newrepublic.com/article/161561/americans-rights-jamal-greene-book-review|access-date=2021-04-22|issn=0028-6583|archive-date=April 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210415170729/https://newrepublic.com/article/161561/americans-rights-jamal-greene-book-review|url-status=live}}{{Cite news|last=O'Donnell|first=Michael|date=2021-04-06|title=The Hazards of American Justice|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/books/review/halfway-home-reuben-jonathan-miller.html|access-date=2021-04-22|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=April 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210411063741/https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/books/review/halfway-home-reuben-jonathan-miller.html|url-status=live}} He further argues that this approach has hardened positions and reduced the ability for those with differing views to compromise. The work praises proportionality review as an alternative to American constitutional adjudication.

His additional writings in articles and book chapters include: "Selling Originalism"; "Giving the Constitution to the Courts", a review of Keith E. Whittington's Political Foundations of Judicial Supremacy: The Presidency, The Supreme Court, and Constitutional Leadership in U.S. History; "Beyond Lawrence: Metaprivacy and Punishment"; "Lawrence and the Right to Metaprivacy"; "Divorcing Marriage from Procreation"; "Judging Partisan Gerrymanders Under the Elections Clause"; "Hands Off Policy: Equal Protection and the Contact Sports Exemption of Title IX"; and "Disappearing Dilemmas: Judicial Construction of Ethical Choice as Strategic Behavior in the Criminal Defense Context".[https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/constitutional-law-scholar-joins-columbia-law-school-faculty Constitutional Law Scholar Joins Columbia Law School Faculty] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201129015234/https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/constitutional-law-scholar-joins-columbia-law-school-faculty |date=November 29, 2020 }} Columbia Law School. Retrieved September 11, 2021.[https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/jamal-greene Jamal Greene. Dwight Professor of Law] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210215034705/https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/jamal-greene |date=February 15, 2021 }} Columbia Law School. 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.[https://www.yalelawjournal.org/author/jamal-greene The Yale Law Journal] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210911225258/https://www.yalelawjournal.org/author/jamal-greene |date=September 11, 2021 }} The Yale Law Journal 2021. Retrieved September 11, 2021.