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Seth Kreimer to receive Coxe Civil Libertarian Award

November 15, 2011

On December 15, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania will award Professor Kreimer with the Spencer L. Coxe Civil Libertarian Award for his "remarkable commitment to civil liberties in Pennsylvania and nationwide," according to the group.
Professor Seth Kreimer
Seth Kreimer, Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor of Law

Seth Kreimer, the Kenneth W. Gemmill Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, will be awarded the Spencer L. Coxe Civil Libertarian Award by the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania for his “remarkable commitment to civil liberties in Pennsylvania and nationwide,” according to the group. The award will be presented at the 2011 Bill of Rights Celebration (ACLU) on December 15, 2011 at the Historical Society of Philadelphia.

Kreimer’s research and teaching focuses on Constitution Law and Civil Rights. His 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 of information, abortion regulation, assisted suicide, and gay marriage. He has explored the implications of DNA testing in criminal justice, free speech on the Internet, and the dangers of abuse in the so-called “war on terror.”

During his career Kreimer has represented plaintiffs in a wide array of litigation. 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), challenging the constitutionality of lifetime disqualification of ex-offenders from employment; Buck v. Stankovic (M. D. Pa. 2007), enjoining denial of a marriage license to a citizen who wished to marry an undocumented non-citizen and Miller v. Mitchell (3rd Cir 2010) the first successful constitutional challenge to a prosecution of a minor for “sexting.”

In April of this year Kreimer was awarded the Law School’s inaugural Beacon Award which recognizes a faculty member’s contribution to pro bono and public interest service.