Robert Sedler

Robert Allen Sedler (September 11, 1935 – January 4, 2025) was an American law professor and attorney, who taught at Wayne State University Law School for over 40 years, specializing in Constitutional law.^[1][2] Sedler began teaching at Wayne Law in 1977, prior to which he was a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law.^[1][3][4] Sedler retired in December 2020, after finishing the fall semester.^[5]

Sedler was born in Pittsburgh on September 11, 1935.^[6][7][8][9]

Sedler graduated from University of Pittsburgh in 1956, and later obtained a Juris Doctor from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, in 1959.^[1][10]

Sedler taught law courses in Ethiopia at the former Haile Selassie I University (now Addis Ababa University) in the 1960s.^[11] Sedler worked with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Kentucky starting in the 1960s, serving as the ACLU of Kentucky's first general counsel, from 1967 to 1975.^[12] While with the ACLU, Sedler opposed racial segregation and challenges to the First Amendment.^[12]

Sedler wrote dozens of essays on First Amendment and civil rights jurisprudence.^[13] Sedler also wrote two books and dozens of articles on Ethiopian law.^[14] He authored one textbook, Constitutional Law in the United States,^[15] and a book on conflict of laws, Across State Lines.^[16] Sedler died on January 4, 2025, at age 89.^[17]