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Seth Kreimer

Seth Kreimer

Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor of Law

Seth Kreimer’s first article, “Allocational Sanctions: The Problem of Negative Rights in a Positive State,” set the terms for a generation of discussion of unconstitutional conditions on public benefits. His subsequent work has shaped analysis of privacy, abortion regulation, assisted suicide, and same sex marriage. He has explored the implications of DNA testing in criminal justice, free speech on the Internet, the Freedom of Information Act, and the abuses of the “war on terror.”

Kreimer has represented plaintiffs in an array of constitutional litigation. Among other cases, he served as co-counsel in Ferguson v. City of Charleston (U.S. Supreme Court 2001), establishing the right of obstetrical patients to refuse non-consensual drug testing; In Re R.B.F. (Pa. Supreme Court 2002), securing the right of gay and lesbian parents to establish families by second parent adoption; Nixon v. Commonwealth (Pa. Supreme Court 2003), overturning a lifetime employment disqualification of ex-offenders; Miller v. Mitchell (3rd Cir 2010) the first successful constitutional challenge to a prosecution of a minor for “sexting”; Galarza v. Szalczyk (3rd Cir 2014), securing relief for an American citizen imprisoned because of an unfounded immigration detainers, Whitewood v. Wolf (E.D. Pa. 2014) establishing the right of same sex couples to marriage equality in the state of Pennsylvania and Peake v. Commonwealth (Pa. Commonwealth 2015) striking down a statute barring ex-offenders from employment.