Faculty - University of Virginia School of Law

CONTACT
jryan@virginia.edu
(434) 924-3572
Room WB173E

ASSISTANT
Pennie Newell

SUBJECTS
Law and education, desegregation, school finance/vouchers, school choice, constitutional and civil rights law, land use planning, Supreme Court, torts, race and the law

C.V.

James E. Ryan

William L. Matheson & Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law
F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties and Human Rights
Director, Program in Law and Public Service
J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1992
A.B., Yale University, 1988

Jim Ryan joined the faculty in 1998 after completing a two-year public interest fellowship in Newark, N.J. He teaches law and education, constitutional law, land use law, local government law and is an instructor in the Supreme Court litigation clinic. He writes primarily about law and educational opportunity but has also authored or co-authored articles on constitutional law and theory. He is the co-author of a forthcoming textbook on Education Law and Policy, and the author of "Five Miles Away, A World Apart," which was published in 2010 by Oxford University Press.

Ryan served as academic associate dean from 2005-09. In 2009, he helped found and now directs the law school’s Program in Law and Public Service. He is the recipient of an All-University Teaching Award from the University of Virginia, an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, and several awards for his scholarship. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Auckland, Harvard, and Yale law schools. Ryan is a member of the U.S. Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission, a group tasked with examining how to make public education both excellent and equitable.

Ryan received his A.B. from Yale University and his J.D. from Virginia. After graduating from the Law School in 1992, Ryan first clerked for J. Clifford Wallace, then-Chief Judge of the 9th Circuit, and then for William H. Rehnquist, the late Chief Justice of the United States.

Scholarship Profile: Opening the Schoolhouse Door (Virginia Journal 2004)

Publications

Books:

Five Miles Away, A World Apart: One City, Two Schools, and the Story of Educational Opportunity in Modern America (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Book Chapters:

"The Real Lessons of School Desegregation," in From Schoolhouse To Courthouse: The Judiciary’s Role in American Education (Brookings Press, 2009).

"A Legal Perspective on Teacher Compensation Reform," in Performance Incentives: Their Growing Impact on American K-12 Education (Brookings Press, 2009)

"Federalism as Libertarian Fantasy," in Doug Kendall, ed., Redefining Federalism, 31 (Environmental Law Institute, 2005).

"The 10th Amendment and Other Paper Tigers: The Legal Boundaries of Educational Governance," in Who's in Charge Here? The Tangled Web of School Governance and Policy (Brookings, 2004).

Articles:

"Poverty as Disability and the Future of Special Education Law," 101 Geo. L.J. (forthcoming 2013).
SSRN

“The Case for New Textualism” (with Doug Kendall), Democracy, Summer 2011, at 66.

“Laying Claim to the Constitution: The Promise of New Textualism,” 97 Va. L. Rev. 1523 (2011).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

“Race and Response-to-Intervention in Special Education” (with Angela A. Ciolfi), 54 How. L.J. 303 (2011).
HeinOnline (PDF)

"Standards, Testing, and School Finance Litigation," 86 Tex. L. Rev. 1223 (2008) (recipient of Education Law Association’s Steven S. Goldberg Award for Distinguished Scholarship).
HeinOnline (PDF)

"Charter Schools and Public Education," 4 Stan. J.C.R. & C.L. 393 (2008).
HeinOnline (PDF)

"Standards, Testing, and School Finance Litigation," 86 Tex. L. Rev. 1223 (2008).

“The Supreme Court and Voluntary Integration,” 121 Harv. L. Rev. 131 (2007).
HeinOnline (PDF)

“The Chief as Teacher,” 58 Stan. L. Rev. 1687 (2006).
HeinOnline (PDF)

“A Constitutional Right to Preschool?,” 94 Cal. L. Rev. 49 (2006). SSRN abstract.
SSRN Abstract | HeinOnline (PDF)

“Voluntary Integration: Asking the Right Questions,” 67 Ohio St. L.J. 327 (2006).
HeinOnline (PDF)

"Brown, School Choice and the Suburban Veto," 90 Va. L. Rev. 1635 (2004).
HeinOnline (PDF)

"Foreword to Symposium on School Finance Litigation: Emerging Trends or New Dead Ends?" (with Thomas Saunders), 22 Yale L. & Pol’y Rev. 463 (2004).
HeinOnline (PDF)

"The Perverse Incentives of the No Child Left Behind Act," 79 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 932 (2004).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

"The Neutrality Principle," Education Next, Fall 2003, at 28.

"The Limited Influence of Social Science Evidence in Modern Desegregation Cases," 81 N.C. L. Rev. 1659 (2003) (essay prepared for conference).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

"Race Discrimination in Education: A Legal Perspective," 105 Teachers Coll. Rec. 1087 (2003) (paper commissioned by National Research Council).
SSRN

“The Political Economy of School Choice” (with Michael Heise), 111 Yale L.J. 2043 (2002).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

“A Political History of the Establishment Clause” (with John C. Jeffries Jr.), 100 Mich. L. Rev. 279 (2001).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

"The Supreme Court and Public Schools," 86 Va. L. Rev. (2000).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

"The Influence of Race in School Finance Reform," 98 Mich. L. Rev. 432 (1999).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

"Schools, Race, and Money," 109 Yale L.J. 249 (1999).
SSRN | HeinOnline (PDF)

"Sheff, Segregation, and School Finance Litigation," 74 N.Y.U. L. Rev. 529 (1999).
HeinOnline (PDF)

“'Paying' for the Change: Using Eminent Domain to Secure Exactions and Sidestep Nollan and Dolan" (co-author), 81 Va. L. Rev. 1801 (1995).
HeinOnline (PDF)

Note, "Smith and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act: An Iconoclastic Assessment," 78 Va. L. Rev. 1407 (1992).
HeinOnline (PDF)

Reviews:

"Does It Take a Theory?: Originalism, Active Liberty, and Minimalism," 58 Stan. L. Rev. 1623 (2006) (reviewing Stephen G. Breyer, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, and Cass Sunstein, Radicals in Robes: Why Extreme Right-Wing Courts Are Wrong for America).
SSRN

Current Courses

All Courses

In the Media

"Experts Explore New Segregation In Schools" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 03/15/2013)
"Texas Among 10 States Facing Lawsuits Over Education Funding" (The Washington Post, 01/02/2013)
"Supreme Court Hears Affirmative Action Arguments" (Lawyers.com Blog, 10/11/2012)
"Romney's School Surprise" (Author) (The New York Times, 05/29/2012)
"Legal Issues Still Murky on Online Student Speech" (Education Week, 01/25/2012)
"Brief of the Week: Free speech, schools and the Web" (The National Law Journal, 11/30/2011)
"Justice Thomas Holds Firm Views on Youths' Rights" (Education Week, 10/17/2011)
"Kendall: How Progressives Take Back the Constitution" (Huffington Post, 06/14/2011)
"Education Book: Vanishing Act" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 02/28/2011)
"Calvin C. Green, Plaintiff in Va. Desegregation Case, Dies at 79" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 02/18/2011)
"U.S. Secretary of Education Appoints Members of Equity and Excellence Commission" (U.S. Department of Education, 02/17/2011)
"The Nixon-Obama Compromise" (The New Republic, 01/04/2011)
"Back to School" (The Richmond Times-Dispatch, 12/30/2010)
"Education Matters" (WGTD, 12/13/2010)
"Remembering Green: New Kent's Civil Rights Milestone" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/07/2010)
"When a Diploma Is Not Enough" (Richmond Magazine, 11/01/2010)
"Argument Recap: Court Attempts to Parse Meaning of 'Except' Clause" (SCOTUSblog, 10/06/2010)
"UVa Professor Argues Law Clinic Case Before Supreme Court" (The Daily Progress, 10/04/2010)
"Required Reading" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 09/05/2010)
"James J. Kilpatrick: Pen of Fire" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 08/16/2010)
“Do Kagan, Roberts Actually Agree?” (Politico.com, 08/04/2010)
"What Kagan Should Say" (Slate, 06/08/2010)
"Socioeconomic Integration: It’s Legal, and It Makes Sense" (co-author) (Education Week, 06/14/2008)
"Fixing Education Policy" (author) (Slate.com, 04/01/2008)
"Say Something!" (author) (Education Week, 01/22/2008)
"Supreme Court Forum Discusses Changes in the Court's Decision-making" (Harvard Law School News, 11/29/2007)
"The Dissenter" (New York Times Magazine, 09/23/2007)
"Conservative Judges, Liberal Crisis" (The American Spectator, 08/08/2007)
"How Liberals Can Take Back the Court" (co-author) (The New Republic, 08/06/2007)
"Originalist Sins/The Faux Originalism of Justice Clarence Thomas" (co-author) (Slate, 08/01/2007)
"Money, Not Race, Fuels New Push to Buoy Schools" (New York Times, 06/30/2007)
"Guest Blogger: Seattle Schools and Bakke" (ACS Blog, 06/29/2007)
“Divided Court Rejects Using Race to Classify Students/Ruling May Call Into Question Roanoke's Attendance Zones” (Roanoke Times, 06/29/2007)
"N.C. Schools Found Success by Balance" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 11/11/2005)
"Commentary: The Evolution of Conservatism/ Should the Supreme Court Clear the Way for School Choice?" (National Review, 02/27/2004)
"Bill Would Lift SOL Rule for Graduation" (The Washington Post, 01/25/2004)
"When Reform Goes Awry / Professor Says U.S. Is Ripe to Reap Unintended Consequences from Well-Intended Legislation" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 01/25/2004)
"State Must Better Prepare Its Students" (author) (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 01/21/2004)
"The Neutrality Principle" (author) (Education Next, 09/01/2003)
"Commentary: Sit In For School Equality" (author) (The Washington Post, 05/19/2003)