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2007 News Articles › Constitutional Rights Section Honors Boger
Constitutional Rights Section Honors Boger
Article Date: Thursday, February 08, 2007
Written By: Russell Rawlings
John Charles “Jack” Boger, dean of the School of Law at the University of North Carolina, is the first recipient of the NCBA’s John McNeill Smith Jr. Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section Award.
Jack Boger, center, accepts honors from Julius Chambers, left, and Reed Hollander. |
The award, presented today in conjunction with the section’s annual meeting at the N.C. Bar Center, has been established to “honor a person who has demonstrated extraordinary commitment to the ideals embodied in the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of North Carolina.”
Boger was nominated by Julius Chambers who presented the award, named in honor of the founding chair of the section. The Constitutional Rights and Responsibilities Section was established by the North Carolina Bar Association in 1995. Reed Hollander currently serves as chair.
Jim Exum, former chief justice of the N.C. Supreme Court, spoke briefly about the significance and appropriateness of naming this award after McNeill Smith, his longtime colleague and friend.
Boger, who succeeded Gene Nichol as dean of the UNC Law School last year, has served on the law school faculty since 1990. He began his career there as an associate professor and has since served as associate dean for academic affairs, professor of law, Wade Edwards Distinguished Professor of Law and deputy director of the UNC Center for Civil Rights since 2005.
A graduate of the UNC School of Law, Boger received his bachelor’s degree from Duke University and also holds a master of divinity degree from Yale Divinity School. Boger has also served as director of the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Poverty and Justice Program.
Among his numerous public service contributions, Boger has chaired the board of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council since 1989, and chaired the board of the Common Sense Foundation from 2001-04.
“Jack” Boger is many things to many people,” Chambers writes in his nomination. “At North Carolina’s foremost public law school, he is a beloved professor, and now dean, who has had enormous impact in his 16 years at Carolina Law. Boger’s class offerings – Constitutional Law, Race and Poverty, and Education Law – are always in high demand and aspiring lawyers who are blessed with seats in his classes are ensured exposure to an engaged scholar, experienced litigator and deeply caring soul with an infectious excitement for constitutional history and jurisprudence.”
Chambers cited Boger’s legal career of more than 30 years, which includes large firm practice, civil rights advocacy that has carried him before the U.S. Supreme Court, legal pedagogy and scholarship, and law school administration.
“And while his career is indeed distinguished by many measures,” Chambers adds, “what sets Boger apart are the values recognized by this award – a deep and abiding commitment to the rights guaranteed by the Constitution and a passion for sharing this understanding with students, colleagues in the North Carolina bar, State leaders, nonprofit advocates and national circles of scholars, thinkers and doers.”
In addition, the nominator noted how Boger takes seriously the calling of his profession, thereby encouraging respect for the American constitutional system and the rule of law.
“Time and time again,” Chambers writes, “students rate Boger as among their most revered professors, and never have students claimed that he silenced perspectives that differed from Boger’s.”