Most aspiring politicians do not dwell in the halls of academia, and few promising young legal thinkers toil in state legislatures. Obama, now the junior senator from Illinois and the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, spent 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School. He was also an enigmatic one, often leaving fellow faculty members guessing about his precise views. While most colleagues published by the pound, he never completed a single work of legal scholarship.Īt a formal institution, Barack Obama was a loose presence, joking with students about their romantic prospects, using first names, referring to case law one moment and “The Godfather” the next. Other faculty members dreamed of tenured positions he turned them down.
At a school where economic analysis was all the rage, he taught rights, race and gender. CHICAGO - The young law professor stood apart in too many ways to count.
