Lawman
Michigan Supreme Court to
the state's Attorney Grievance
Commission.
Sedler's career
testifies to his
love for the
legal profession
Her husband, meanwhile,
has just published a new
book, Constitutional Law in
the United States (Kluwer Law
International), a revision of an
earlier work mainly meant to
explain our legal system to an
international audience.
By Jack Lessenberry
Robert Sedler was a young
law professor asleep in Addas
Ababa, Ethiopia, when there
was a knock on his door.
Someone had come to tell him
President Kennedy had been
assassinated.
Sedler and Rozanne, his young
wife, didn't get much sleep
that night. But they did end up
spending three years trying to
help Ethiopia transition from
a primitive monarchy to a
democratic society. Sedler was
there as a visiting scholar, and
ended up writing what is still a
much-cited book on Ethiopian
civil procedure.
How much his work affected
jurisprudence in Ethiopia
isn't clear. But since then, it is
certain that he and Rozanne, a
clinical social worker, have had
a vast impact on Michigan and
Wayne State University, where
Bob has taught since 1977 and
is now a Distinguished Professor
of Law.
Though the Sedlers grew up
in Pittsburgh, they both have
backgrounds similar to those
of many Wayne State students:
They were the first generation
in their families to attend
college.
By Bob Sedler's count, he has had more than 6,000 students through
the years at the Wayne State University Law School.
successfully litigating a school
desegregation case for the
Missouri branch of the NAACP.
He has argued two cases before
the U.S. Supreme Court — both
of which he won. And he hasn't
hesitated to take on unpopular
causes for his beloved American
Civil Liberties Union and other
groups.
some of his usual allies by
arguing that, according to his
interpretation of the law, unless
there is an act of Congress,
Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to build
a second bridge across the
Detroit River would be illegal.
During the 1990s, he argued
unsuccessfully in favor of Dr.
Jack Kevorkian and a right to
assisted suicide before the
Michigan Supreme Court.
More recently, he has angered
Michigan's Child Care System
V. Mansour, which established
E
"Neither of our fathers went
beyond the sixth grade," Bob
Sedler says. "And none of our
families had really traveled very
much at all."
The Sedlers, longtime
Southfield residents and
members of Temple Emanu-
El in Oak Park, have more
than made up for that. He
has traveled to more than 50
countries, and has frequently
lectured on American
Constitutional law in a number
of them, especially Russia. Here
at home, he often has donated
his time and energy to social
causes and civil liberties cases.
As early as the 1960s, he was
Perhaps his biggest legal
triumph came in 1986 with
a landmark federal case,
_o t a5
that racial discrimination
in adoption and foster care
decisions is illegal. It's a case
of which he is considerably
proud. Before that verdict,
white foster parents were
not allowed to adopt black
children, or vice-versa. His
victory, he notes, "resulted in a
substantial number of children
being adopted who would have
remained in foster care until
they were adults."
Beyond any doubt, Bob Sedler
has had a major impact on the
careers of many lawyers who
began their careers at Wayne
State University Law School. By
his count, he's had more than
6,000 students, and his courses
on Constitutional Law and the
Conflict of Laws are enormously
popular.
Bob and Rozanne Sedler on
the occasion of their Detroit
Community Service Award.
What both Sedlers have failed
to do, as they move into their
mid-70s, is slow down. Rozanne
still works full-time as a clinical
social worker with Jewish Family
Service of Detroit in Oak Park.
She also was appointed by the
While both Rozanne and
Bob have received numerous
individual honors, last year they
received the American Jewish
Committee's annual Detroit
Community Service Award as
a couple. Their Jewish identity
is very important to them,
and they have been strong
supporters of Israel.
If anything is even more
important, it is their children,
Daughter Beth Foster, a social
worker like her mother, lives
in the Los Angeles area with
her husband Tom, and has
two young daughters. Their
son, Erik, lives in Chicago
with his wife Marla and their
two children, and is now
principal owner of ASGK Public
Strategies, the non-political half
of the famous public relations
firm begun by David Axelrod,
one of President Obama's
closest associates.
That connection paid off a year
ago. On the wall of Sedler's
Wayne State office hangs
a photograph of him and
Rozanne meeting the President
in the storied West Wing of the
White House, and comparing
notes as law professors.
"My first taste of politics
was as an alternate page at
the Democratic National
Convention of 1956," Bob
Sedler says. He's been active
in politics ever since, and still
speaks wistfully about the
defeat that year of his first great
hero, Adlai Stevenson.
"But talking with the President
in the White House, now, that's
something special, "Sedler
adds, flashing a grin.
Writer, commentator and political
analyst Jack Lessenberry teaches
in the journalism program at
Wayne State.
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