Ralph Richard Banks
- Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law
- Room N331, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Children & the Law
- Civil Rights
- Constitutional Law
- Distributive Justice
- Employment Discrimination
- Equal Protection
- Family Law
- Inequality
- Property & Real Estate Law
- Protection of Civil Liberties
- Race & the Criminal Justice System
Biography
Ralph Richard Banks (BA ’87, MA ’87) is the Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and Professor, by courtesy, at the School of Education. A native of Cleveland, Ohio and a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School (JD 1994), Banks has been a member of the Stanford faculty since 1998. Prior to joining the law school, he practiced law at O’Melveny & Myers, was the Reginald F. Lewis Fellow at Harvard Law School and clerked for a federal judge, the Honorable Barrington D. Parker, Jr. (then of the Southern District of New York). Professor Banks teaches and writes about family law, employment discrimination law and race and the law. He is the author of Is Marriage for White People? How the African American Marriage Decline Affects Everyone. At Stanford, he is affiliated with the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research, the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and the Ethnicity, the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and the Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality. His writings have appeared in a wide range of popular and scholarly publications, including the Stanford Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. He has been interviewed and quoted by numerous print and broadcast media, including ABC News/Nightline, National Public Radio, The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, among others.
Education
- BA Stanford University 1987
- MA Stanford University 1987
- JD Harvard Law School 1994
Courses
Affiliations & Honors
- Member, Faculty Advisory Board for the Michelle R. Clayman Institute for Gender Research
- Faculty Associate, Research Institute for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
News
Analysis: Supreme Court Ruling Likely To Affect Equal-Rights Laws
Palo Alto Online
Stanford Law School Offers Campus-Wide Forums on Race, Policing and the Criminal Justice System
Stanford Law School
Ethics Change Could Bar Judges From Boy Scouts
Daily Journal
Insights On Marriage: Black And White
Palo Alto Online
New Dean Search Committee Announced
Stanford Law School
Vinny Tells All
CNN - Dr. Drew
Is Marriage for White People?
During the past half century, marriage has declined throughout American society. Among those who do marry, the wife is more likely than ever to outearn or be better educated than her husband. Why have these changes occurred? How have they shaped intimate relationships?
Is Marriage for White People? answers these questions through an exploration of the lives of the black middle class.