Rethinking Ruffin
Thursday, November 15 2007
by Susan Davis and Frank Stasio
Thomas Ruffin (1787-1870)
Thomas Ruffin was a well known, well respected, much cited, much memorialized North Carolina jurist. There's a statue of him in front of the court of appeals in Raleigh and streets and dorms named for him around the state. But new legal scholarship makes clear that Ruffin's most famous decision, “State v. Mann,” which reaffirms the absolute rights of a master over a slave, should account for more of his legacy than it does.
Host Frank Stasio discusses Ruffin’s legacy with: Sally Greene, independent scholar, adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law, attorney, and member of the Chapel Hill Town Council; Eric Muller, Dan K. Moore Distinguished Professor in Jurisprudence and Ethics at the University of North Carolina School of Law; and, Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair at the University of Texas School of Law.
