Biography

Jane S. Schacter is a leading national expert on statutory interpretation and legislative process, constitutional law, and sexual orientation law. Her work has been published in numerous law journals, and she co-edits a casebook on sexual orientation and the law. Her most recent work has focused on various aspects of the debate over same-sex marriage, an issue that lies at the intersection of her teaching and research interests.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2006, Professor Schacter was professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, as well as the University of Michigan Law School. Early in her career she was an assistant attorney general in Massachusetts, an associate at Hill & Barlow in Boston, and a law clerk to Judge Raymond J. Pettine of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.

Key Works

• William B. Rubenstein, Carlos A. Ball and Jane S. Schacter, Cases and Materials on Sexual Orientation and the Law, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 3rd. ed., 2008.
• Jane Schacter, Political Accountability, Proxy Accountability and the Democratic Legitimacy of Legislatures, in The Least Examined Branch: The Role of Legislatures in the Constitutional State, Richard W. Bauman and Tsvi Kahana, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Jane Schacter, Lawrence v. Texas and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Democratic Aspirations, 13 Temple Political & Civil Rights Review 733 (2004).
• Victoria A. Nourse and Jane Schacter, The Politics of Legislative Drafting: A Congressional Case Study, 77 New York University Law Review 575 (2002).
• Jane Schacter, Confounding Common Law Originalism in Recent Supreme Court Statutory Interpretation: Implications for the Legislative History Debate and Beyond, 51 Stanford Law Review 1 (1998).
• Jane Schacter, Metademocracy: The Changing Structure of Legitimacy in Statutory Interpretation, 108 Harvard Law Review 593 (1995).
• Jane Schacter, The Pursuit of "Popular Intent": Interpretive Dilemmas in Direct Democracy, 105 Yale Law Journal 107 (1995).

In the News

• Proposition 8 'May Not Reach Supreme Court'
  The Guardian, February 08, 2012

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Constitutional Law I
• Constitutional Law II: The Fourteenth Amendment
• Legislation
• Sexual Orientation and the Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Jane S. Schacter, Ely at the Altar: Political Process Theory Throughy the Lens of the Marriage Debate, 109 Michigan Law Review 1363 (2011)
• Jane S. Schacter, Capacity and Context: LGBT Rights and the Obama Administration's First Year, 6 Stanford Journal of Civil Rights & Civil Liberties 147 (2010)
• Jane S. Schacter, Courts and the Politics of Backlash: Marriage Equality Litigation, Then and Now, 82 Southern California Law Review 1153 (2009) / Stanford Public Law Working Paper, No. 1564301
• Jane S. Schacter, The Other Same-Sex Marriage Debate (Symposium: The Evolution of Academic Discourse on Sexual Orientation and the Law: A Festschrift in Honor of Jeffrey Sherman), 84 Chicago Kent Law Review 379 (2009).
• Jane S. Schacter, Digitally Democratizing Congress? Technology and Political Accountability, 89 Boston University Law Review 641 (April 2009).
• William B. Rubenstein, Carlos A. Ball and Jane S. Schacter, Cases and Materials on Sexual Orientation and the Law, St. Paul, MN: West Publishing, 3rd. ed., 2008.
• Jane S. Schacter, Unenumerated Democracy: Lessons from the Right to Vote, 9 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law 457 (2007).
• Jane Schacter, Political Accountability, Proxy Accountability and the Democratic Legitimacy of Legislatures, in The Least Examined Branch: The Role of Legislatures in the Constitutional State, Richard W. Bauman and Tsvi Kahana, eds., Cambridge University Press, 2006.
• Jane S. Schacter, Sexual Orientation, Social Change, and the Courts, 54 Drake Law Review 861 (2006).
• Jane Schacter, Ely and the Idea of Democracy, 57 Stanford Law Review 737 (2004).