Biography

An esteemed voice on a wide range of topics related to equality, R. Richard Banks focuses his scholarship on the use of race in public policy debates ranging from the adoption of children to the use of educational testing criteria in college admissions. He is especially interested in the rhetoric of civil rights discourse and the ways in which attachments to theories of color blindness might impede progress toward substantive racial equality. Before attending law school, Professor Banks was an extensively published freelance journalist, writing articles for the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, among others.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1998, Professor Banks was the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School and an attorney with the firm O’Melveny and 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

• Should Race Be A Factor In Adoptions?
  Time, May 27, 2008

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Employment Discrimination
• Equal Protection and Antidiscrimination: Race, Law and Inequality
• Family Law
• Race and the Law

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• 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).
• R. Richard Banks, G. Marcus Cole, Robert Smith, Bob Parks, Blacks and conservatism, Forum held February 24, 2004, sponsored by the Black Law Student Association, Stanford Law School. [Videorecording] C-SPAN, (2004).
• R. Richard Banks, Pamela S. Karlan, William S. Koski and Jack Greenberg, Brown v. Board of Education: 50 Years Later [Panel discussion], 38 Stanford Lawyer 20-25 (Spring 2004).
• R. Richard Banks, Racial Profiling and Antiterrorism Efforts, 89 Cornell Law Review 1201-1217 (2004).
• R. Richard Banks, The Story of Brown v. City of Oneonta: The Uncertain Meaning of Racially Discriminatory Policing Under the Equal Protection Clause, Stanford Law School Research Paper No. 81 (January 2004). 21 pages.
• R. Richard Banks, Benign-Invidious Asymmetry in Equal Protection Analysis, 31 Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly 573-586 (2003).

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