MAY 13 • 2021 | 19

in Ethiopia. Not until the international 
edition Newsweek arrived did they really 
know what had happened. 
They ended up staying in Ethiopia 
three years. 
While there, Bob wrote a legal text-
book for Ethiopian law students, which 
“as far as I know may still be in use.
”
When they returned, he taught at 
the University of Kentucky law school 
till 1977, where his students included 
McConnell, an Alabama native who 
went on to run Jefferson County, which 
includes Louisville, before being elected 
to the U.S. Senate in 1984. “I don’t know if 
he would remember me, but he might — 
if not from law school, probably from the 
school busing controversy in Louisville.
”
Indeed, Sedler battled successfully to 
desegregate the Louisville schools by get-
ting the courts to approve cross-district 
busing with suburban school districts — 
something that the U.S. Supreme Court 
in Bradley v Milliken rejected for the 
Detroit area in 1974.
He also battled in the courts on behalf 
of draft resistors and others who got in 
trouble for protesting the Vietnam War. 
In perhaps his most brilliant legal 
move, he figured out how to end dis-
crimination in housing law in a socially 
conservative state where, despite the U.S. 
Civil Rights Act of 1964, politicians were 
unwilling to vote for anything called a 
“fair housing act.
”
Instead, he negotiated to get Kentucky 
to pass what was billed a “bill to regulate 
commercial real estate transactions.
” It 
meant that homeowners were free to sell 
their homes to whomever they chose if 
they didn’t use a real estate agent. But 
since more than 95 percent of them did, 
it had the effect of getting discrimination 
out of the housing market.
Despite his success, Sedler said, 
“I knew I was never going to stay in 
Kentucky. Detroit was a city that felt very 
much like home to me, like Pittsburgh, 
and I was very happy when the opportu-
nity came up at Wayne State.
”

MICHIGAN ACTIVISM
The Sedlers arrived in 1977, moved to 
Southfield and became and remain active 
members of Temple Emanu-El in Oak 
Park. Though not conventionally devout, 
both Sedlers are committed and active 

members of social action and the Reform 
community. 
Though he was incredibly devoted 
to his students, Sedler, as he had in 
Kentucky, also plunged into social justice 
causes in Michigan, frequently work-
ing pro bono (as a volunteer) with the 
American Civil Liberties Union.
He battled successfully against 
Dearborn’s attempt to prohibit “non-resi-
dents” (meaning African Americans from 
nearby Detroit) from using city parks. 
Sedler has opposed all religious displays 
on public property and fought success-
fully to stop Michigan from preventing a 
white couple from adopting a black child.
Sedler hasn’t been afraid to raise eye-
brows; he alienated some supporters 
by supporting Jack Kevorkian’s right to 
provide assisted suicide in the 1990s, 
and others by supporting the late Matty 
Moroun’s attempt to prevent another 
Detroit River bridge.
But he made perhaps his greatest 
impact when a former student came to 
him to ask his advice on how to prepare 
a federal case involving two lesbian nurs-
es, Jayne Rowse and April DeBoer, who 
wanted to jointly adopt three children 
but who were not allowed to do so by 
the state of Michigan. When it was over, 
Sedler’s advice not only helped them 
establish same-sex adoption but same 
sex marriage as a constitutional right 
throughout the nation.
The young lawyer who came to him 
for advice is now Michigan’s attorney 
general, who said of her mentor that “his 
unyielding belief that our constitutional 
rights encompass more than just lines on 
pieces of paper” were her inspiration.
Along the way, Sedler has received 
almost too many awards to count, from 
Phi Beta Kappa to the Order of the 
Coif; to State Bar and ACLU awards and 
the Michigan Association for Justice’s 
Champion of Justice Award “for his ded-
ication to the cause of justice and making 
a real difference in people’s lives.
” 
He has also written a book that 
has gone through multiple editions, 
Constitutional Law in the United States.
Now, he has finally taught his last class. 
But when it comes to the public arena, 
will he really remain fully retired?
In this case … there may, indeed, be 
reasonable doubt. 

“BOB SEDLER’S IMPACT
IS IMMENSE AND 
FAR-REACHING.”

— ATTORNEY GENERAL DANA NESSEL

Sedler received the Champion of 
Justice Award from the Michigan 
Association for Justice May 11, 2019.

Rozanne and Bob in 
Panama in July 2019

