Biography

An expert on topics related to race and inequality, Ralph Richard Banks joined Stanford Law School in 1998. His research addresses race and inequality issues across a variety of domains, from criminal justice to employment to the family. He has written and lectured widely in each of these areas. He is currently working on a book, tentatively titled Race, Marriage and Inequality. Professor Banks teaches equal protection law, family law, employment discrimination law, and race and the law. He has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia Law School. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty, Professor Banks was the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School and an attorney with the firm O’Melveny & Myers. He was a law clerk to Judge Barrington D. Parker, Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Key Works

• R. Richard Banks, Race-Based Suspect Selection and Colorblind Equal Protection Doctrine and Discourse, 48 UCLA Law Review 1075-1124 (2001).
• R. Richard Banks, The Color of Desire: Fulfilling Adoptive Parents' Racial Preferences Through Discriminatory State Action, 107 Yale Law Journal 875-964 (1998).

In the News

• At Heart Of Prop. 8 Trial, A Clash Over Motives
  The Sacramento Bee, January 19, 2010
• What Next For Tiger Woods? Celebrity Breakups Often Extra Bumpy
  Orlando Sentinel, December 19, 2009
• Tiger Woods And Wife: If They Split, How To Divide?
  Los Angeles Times, December 18, 2009
• Deals: On Black Marriage
  Publishers Weekly Best Books, December 07, 2009

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Constitutional Law II: The Fourteenth Amendment
• Employment Discrimination
• Equal Protection and Antidiscrimination Law
• Family Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• Ralph Richard Banks, The Marriage Decline, Room for Debate: A Running Commentary on the News, New York Times, January 24, 2010.
• Ralph Richard Banks, Sidestepping Land Mines, Room for Debate: A Running Commentary on the News, New York Times, July 23, 2009.
• Ralph Richard Banks, Complicated Dynamics, Room for Debate: A Running Commentary on the News, New York Times, July 22, 2009.
• Ralph Richard Banks and Richard Thompson Ford, (How) Does Unconscious Bias Matter? Law, Politics, and Racial Inequality, 58 Emory Law Journal 1053 (2009).
• Ralph Richard Banks, Beyond Colorblindness: Neo-Racialism and the Future of Race and Law Scholarship, 25 Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal 41 (Spring 2009).
• R. Richard Banks, Beyond Common-sense Understandings of Sex and Race Discrimination, in Beyond Common Sense: Psychological Science in the Courtroom, Eugene Borgida and Susan T. Fiske, eds., Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, July 2008.
• R. Richard Banks, Jennifer L. Eberhardt, and Lee Ross, Race, Crime, and Antidiscrimination, in Beyond Common Sense: Psychological Science in the Courtroom, Eugene Borgida and Susan t. Fiske, eds, Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, July 2008.
• R. Richard Banks, The Aftermath of Loving v. Virginia: Sex Asymmetry in African American Intermarriage, 2007 Wisconsin Law Review 533 (2007).
• R. Richard Banks, Jennifer L. Eberhardt and Lee Ross, Discrimination and Implicit Bias in a Racially Unequal Society (Symposium on Behavioral Realism), 94 California Law Review 1169 (2006).
• R. Richard Banks and Su Jin Gatlin, African American Intimacy: The Racial Gap in Marriage (Symposium: Going Back to Class? The Reemergence of Class in Critical Race Theory), 11 Michigan Journal of Race & Law 115 (2005).

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Member, Faculty Advisory Board for the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research
• Faculty Associate, Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity