Melissa Murray (academic) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Melissa Murray
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Testifying at the nomination hearing of Brett Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court - September 7, 2018
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| Born |
Melissa Erica Murray
August 30, 1975 |
| Education | University of Virginia (BA) Yale University (JD) |
| Spouse(s) |
Joshua Hill
(m. 2004) |
Melissa Erica Murray (born August 30, 1975) is a smart legal expert and teacher. She is a professor at NYU Law. She also helps lead the Birnbaum Women's Leadership Center there. Before joining NYU in 2018, she was a temporary dean at the UC Berkeley School of Law.
Early Life and Education
Melissa Murray was born in Brooklyn, New York, on August 30, 1975. She grew up in Florida. Her parents came from Jamaica. Her mother was a nurse, and her father was a dentist.
Melissa went to Lincoln Park Academy High School in Florida. She was very active! She played the violin in two youth orchestras. She was even a contestant on the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament TV show. She was also a top debater in the country. She finished as the national runner-up in student congress during her senior year. She graduated from high school in 1993.
She then went to the University of Virginia. She earned her first degree in History and American Studies in 1997. She was a very bright student there, earning special honors like being a Jefferson Scholar. She also volunteered a lot and was part of many student groups.
After that, Melissa went to Yale Law School. She earned her law degree in 2002. While at Yale, she worked on the Yale Law Journal. This is a very important publication for legal ideas. She also received special recognition as a scholar.
Her Career in Law
After law school, Melissa worked for two judges. She worked for Sonia Sotomayor, who later became a Supreme Court Justice. She also worked for Judge Stefan R. Underhill. She was the only African-American law clerk at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals at that time.
In 2006, Melissa joined the UC Berkeley School of Law as a professor. She became a permanent professor there in 2011. As a new professor, she won an award for her paper called "Marriage as Punishment." This paper looked at how marriage has been used in the justice system. The next year, another one of her articles won an award. It was about laws related to fairness for different people.
As a full professor at UC Berkeley, Melissa won the Rutter Award in 2014. This award honors professors who are excellent teachers and inspire their students. The next year, she became the director of the Center on Reproductive Rights and Justice. This center was the first of its kind at a law school. It focuses on legal issues about people's health and family decisions. She also helped write a book about these important legal cases.
In 2016, Melissa became the temporary dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law. She left UC Berkeley in 2018. She then became a professor at New York University and helped lead the Birnbaum Women's Leadership Network.
In September 2018, Melissa Murray spoke at a hearing for Brett Kavanaugh. He was being considered for a position on the Supreme Court. She shared her expert opinion with the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary.
Melissa has also been a member of important legal groups. She has served on the boards of organizations like the Brennan Center for Justice and the National Women's Law Center. These groups work on legal and justice issues.
Since 2019, Melissa has co-hosted a podcast called Strict Scrutiny. On this podcast, she talks about legal topics with other legal experts. In 2022, the podcast joined the Crooked Media network.
Personal Life
Melissa Murray married Joshua Hill Jr. on October 23, 2004.
Selected Books
- Reproductive Rights and Justice Stories (2019) (with K. Shaw & R. Siegel)
- Cases on Reproductive Rights and Justice (2014)
- The Trump Indictments: The Historic Charging Documents with Commentary (2024) (with A. Weissman)
See also
- Joe Biden Supreme Court candidates
