Professor Smith's background reflects a continuous interest in "the
intersection of law, government, and politics." As an undergraduate at
George Washington and a Root-Tilden Scholar at New York University, he
pursued this interest in the classroom and through internships with a
national political party and two members of Congress. After law school
Smith served as a legal counsel to the Senate Governmental Affairs
Committee. A past Chair of the Section on Legislation of the
Association of American Law Schools, he participates frequently in media
interviews and public affairs programs about constitutional
controversies and the Supreme Court. He has published articles on free
speech issues involved in medical research, privacy concerns posed by
emerging telecommunication technologies, and on the proper
interpretation of federal statutes. His most recent article, appearing
in the University of Colorado Law Review, proposed a new approach to
judicial interpretation of legislation passed by voter initiative.
Smith is the creator of a nationally-recognized seminar in which law
students learn about the Supreme Court by role-playing as lawyers
arguing before it and current justices. He has worked on a program for
enhancing high school students' knowledge of constitutional law, and he
was national president of Prison Possibilities, Inc., which sponsored
innovative training programs to reduce prison inmate recidivism. In
addition to his regular law school courses, Smith teaches the special
Summer Enrichment Program for newly admitted students.