Orin Samuel Kerr (born June 2, 1971)[1] is an American legal scholar and professor of law at the UC Berkeley School of Law.[2] He is known for his studies of American criminal procedure and the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as well as computer crime law and internet surveillance.[2] Kerr is one of the contributors to the law-oriented blog titled The Volokh Conspiracy.
Orin Kerr | |
|---|---|
 Kerr in 2016 | |
| Born | Orin Samuel Kerr June 2, 1971 New York, U.S. |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Princeton University (BSE) Stanford University (MS) Harvard University (JD) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Cybercrime |
| Institutions | George Washington University University of Southern California University of California, Berkeley |
Early life and education
editKerr was born in 1971 in New York. His father, Arnold D. Kerr (born Aronek Kierszkowski; 1928–2012), was a Polish Jew who was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust; he immigrated to the United States in 1954 and was a professor of civil engineering at New York University and the University of Delaware.[3][4]
After graduating from Tower Hill School in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1989,[5] Kerr studied mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, graduating in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, magna cum laude. He then did graduate study in mechanical engineering at Stanford University, where he received a Master of Science degree in 1994. Kerr then attended Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy and an editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. He graduated in 1997 with a Juris Doctor, magna cum laude.[6]
Career
editKerr was a law clerk for Judge Leonard I. Garth of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit from 1997 to 1998. From 1998 to 2001, he was a trial attorney in the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section of the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division. In 2001, he joined the faculty of George Washington University Law School.[6]
In 2003, Kerr took a leave of absence from the law school to clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court during October Term 2003.[7] In 2009, he served U.S. Senator John Cornyn of the Senate Judiciary Committee as Special Counsel for Supreme Court Nominations during Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation as Supreme Court Justice;[8] a year later, he again served as an advisor to Cornyn, this time on the Supreme Court confirmation of Elena Kagan.[9]
Kerr was one of the lawyers for alleged MySpace "cyberbully" Lori Drew.[10] His blog contributions at The Volokh Conspiracy often focus on developments in internet privacy law. He has been regarded as a leading scholar on Fourth Amendment jurisprudence in electronic communications and surveillance. Kerr was repeatedly cited in the Ninth Circuit's 2008 opinion Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co., Inc.,[11][12] which held that users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the content of text messages and e-mails. The Supreme Court later took up the case, as Ontario v. Quon, and unanimously reversed. Kerr argued before the Supreme Court in the 2011 case Davis v. United States.[13]
In response to a 2011 comment by Chief Justice John Roberts criticizing the irrelevancy of legal scholarship for focusing on issues such as Immanuel Kant's influence on 18th century evidentiary approaches in Bulgaria, Kerr wrote a short, humorous paper on the topic in 2015, finding that such influence was highly improbable.[14]
Academia
editIn 2012, he was appointed to a position as a scholar-in-residence at the Library of Congress; the two-year part-time position focused on information technology, privacy, and criminal justice.[15] In 2018, Kerr joined the faculty of the USC Gould School of Law. In 2019, Kerr joined the faculty of the UC Berkeley School of Law.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Ainsley Fuhr and Orin Kerr". The New York Times. 11 March 2012.
- ^ a b "Faculty | UC Berkeley School of Law". Orin Kerr faculty profile
- ^ Orin Kerr [@OrinKerr] (April 9, 2021). "This is my dad, a Holocaust survivor, telling one story of lucky survival in the concentration camps" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
- ^ "In Memoriam: Prof. Arnold Kerr". UDaily. May 29, 2012.
- ^ Atkins, Hugh. "Orin Kerr '89: Author, Blogger, Musician and Teacher". Tower Hill Bulletin, vol. 48, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2011). Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ a b Orin S. Kerr curriculum vitae. Archived 2013-03-30 at the Wayback Machine George Washington University. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ Kerr, Orin. "Supreme Court Clerks, Ten Years Later". The Volokh Conspiracy. 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ Kerr, Orin. "Blogging Break:". The Volokh Conspiracy. 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ Gerstein, Josh. "Kerr to advise Cornyn on Kagan". Politico. 2010-05-12. Retrieved 2013-10-24.
- ^ Kerr, Orin. "Lori Drew Opinion Handed Down – Judge Grants Motion To Dismiss on Vagueness Grounds". The Volokh Conspiracy. 2009-08-29. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
- ^ 529 F.3d 892 (9th Cir. 2008)
- ^ Kerr, Orin. "Ninth Circuit Finds Fourth Amendment Protection in Text Messages". The Volokh Conspiracy. 2008-06-18. Retrieved 2016-07-19.
- ^ Davis v. United States, 564 U.S. ___, 131 S. Ct. 2419, 2423–24 (2011).
- ^ Gershman, Jacob (March 31, 2015). "Study Casts Doubt on Kantian Link to Bulgarian Law". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 21, 2016.
- ^ "Orin Kerr Named Scholar in Residence at Law Library of Congress". Library of Congress. Archived January 3, 2011, at the Wayback Machine 2012-06-06. Retrieved 2013-10-24.