Charles Zelden, Ph.D., professor at the NSU Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, was named as part of the amici curiae in an Aug. 30 brief for the U.S. Supreme Court case Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action. Meaning “friend of the court” in Latin, amici curiae are those who assist a court by offering relevant information in a case that they are not a party to.
Zelden is among 75 noted historians named in the Paul Finkelman-authored brief, including five Pulitzer-Prize winners, consulted because of their extensive knowledge of civil-rights history. Finkelman is the President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law and Public Policy at Albany Law School.
The amici members are, according to the Court brief, “well qualified to address whether the history of the Fourteenth Amendment supports this Court’s precedents holding that the Amendment precludes a state from imposing special burdens on a minority group’s ability to access the political process.”
Zelden is the author of several books on the U.S. Supreme Court, voting issues, and civil rights. Among these are The Battle for the Black Ballot: Smith V. Allwright and the Defeat of the Texas All White Primary, Bush V. Gore: Exposing the Hidden Crisis in American Democracy, and most recently Thurgood Marshall: Race, Rights, and the Struggle for a More Perfect Union. He is a frequent source for local, national, and international media on stories related to law, history, voting, and politics.
At NSU, Zelden teaches undergraduate courses on constitutional and 20th Century American history, the electoral process, and legal studies. In 2012, Zelden earned the college’s first Distinguished Professor of the Year award. The prestigious honor is presented to a faculty member at the rank of full professor with at least 10 years of full-time teaching experience at NSU, a sustained record of scholarship, and a portfolio demonstrating excellence in teaching.