Paul Butler

Associate Dean for Faculty Development, Carville Dickinson Benson Research Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School
B.A. Yale University, cum laude
J.D. Harvard Law School, cum laude

Professor Butler teaches in the areas of criminal law, race relations law, and jurisprudence. His scholarship has been published in many leading scholarly journals, including the Yale Law Journal, the Harvard Law Review (two articles), the Stanford Law Review and the UCLA Law Review (three articles). He has been awarded the Professor of the Year award three times by the GW graduating class. He was a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania Law School and the Acting Co-Director of the GW/Oxford Human Rights Program at Oxford University. He was elected to the American Law Institute in 2003.  

Paul Butler appears in the following:

Hard Work — and Affirmative Action

Wednesday, February 09, 2022

This fall, the Supreme Court will hear arguments to strike down affirmative action. Paul Butler, makes his case on why it should be upheld.

Another Police Killing Near Minneapolis as the Chauvin Trial Continues

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

A closer look at the ongoing Derek Chauvin trial, on top of the recent police killing of Daunte Wright.

Assessing the Biden Administration on Racial Justice

Wednesday, March 03, 2021

The Biden campaign promised to address racial justice. Now how is the Biden administration doing so far?

30 Issues: Defund, Reform or Support the Police?

Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Paul Butler and Jami Floyd discuss the defund the police movement and what it means for making families safer through prevention and reimagining the role of the police.

Trump's War on Critical Race Theory

Thursday, October 08, 2020

In executive orders and public commentary, the president rejects "sensitivity training" and what he views as "anti-American" historiography. 

The Docket: The Chokehold, Five Years Later

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Five years after Eric Garner's death on Staten Island triggered nationwide protests, a criminal justice reform advocate and former prosecutor talks policing communities of color.

Comments [1]

Justice and Journalism Thirty Years After the Central Park Jogger Case

Thursday, April 18, 2019

Decades after the grisly case and wrongful convictions consumed New York City, have the media and law enforcement taken full responsibility?

Comments [5]

Reefer, Managed: Cannabis and Mass Incarceration

Tuesday, April 09, 2019

'I was a hypocrite like most prosecutors,' says Butler of his use and prosecution of cannabis.

Comment

Starbucks Closes 8,000 Stores for Racial Bias Training

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

The training is in response to an April 12 incident in which a staff member called the police on two African-American men who were waiting for a friend at a Starbucks in Philadelphia.

Comment

Juror V. Racism: Tackling Discrimination in The Courtroom

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Racially-biased juries can have their decisions thrown out. One former prosecutor argues that we should turn individual jurors to send an important message about an unequal system.

Comment

Supreme Court Could Overturn Affirmative Action

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the affirmative action policy at the University of Michigan Law School. Today, just nine years after Justice O'Connor issued the Court's dec...

Comments [16]

Shooting Death of 17-Year-Old Trayvon Martin Puts Scrutiny on Florida Self-Defense Laws

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

On February 26th, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black high school student was visiting his father in Sanford, Florida and watching the NBA All-Star game at a house in a gated community. At halftime, he walked to 7-Eleven to buy Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea. He was on his way back to the house when a neighborhood crime watch volunteer named George Zimmerman noticed him. Zimmerman was patrolling the neighborhood in his SUV. He called 911 to report "a real suspicious guy," and then took off after Martin. The details of what happened next are unclear, but other 911 calls from neighbors record screams for help and a gunshot. Martin was discovered dead with a bullet to his chest.

Comments [7]

The Greene Space

The NEXT New York Conversation: Stop and Frisk

Monday, May 2, 2011

7:00 PM

Is “stop-and-frisk” an effective preemptive strategy for crime prevention or a case of racial profiling? Join panelists on both sides of the issue in The Greene Space to discuss how "stop-and-frisk" affects New Yorkers in their everyday lives.

How Race Affects a Jury: Latest in BART Shooting Case Surprises Activists

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Jury selection is complete in the murder case against former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle against an unarmed passenger, Oscar Grant, on New Year's Day 2009; but, while the case is moving forward, many activists are concerned about the jury's racial make-up. The shooter is white and the victim is black.

Comments [1]

Arizona's Immigration Law Shifts Burden of Proof

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law one of the toughest immigration laws in the United States. The law requires police to question anyone they believe to be an illegal immigrant. Critics say they believe that this law will lead to wide spread racial profiling. The law also seems to shift the burden of proof onto the defense instead of the prosecution in a country where pratcially everyone knows the term, "innocent until proven guilty."

Comments [11]

Testing the First Amendment Online

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

"Let me be the first to say this plainly: These judges deserve to be killed. Their blood will replenish the tree of liberty. A small price to pay to assure freedom for millions.” ...

Comment

America, Still Not 'Post-Racial'

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

On Monday, Henry Louis Gates Jr, one of the nation's pre-eminent African American scholars, was arrested for breaking into his own home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The charges have b...

Comments [7]

Hip Hop Justice

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Paul Butler, former federal prosecutor, professor of Law at George Washington University, and author of Let’s Get Free: A Hip Hop Theory of Justice talks about how to fix a broken criminal justice system.

Comments [19]

Justice Talking

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Raised in the Bronxdale Houses, New York’s own Sonia Sotomayor is President Obama’s pick for the Supreme Court. This morning: reaction from the Latino community; Sotomayor’s history of legal opinions; and what public housing meant in the 1950's. Also: squatting makes a comeback; Paul Butler on Hip Hop Justice; and ...

Race, Justice, Freedom and Paul Butler

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Paul Butler was on track for the American dream. A graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School, he was a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice specializing in p...

Comments [5]