Scott Skinner-Thompson

Scott's research and teaching interests are in constitutional law, civil rights, and privacy law, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ and HIV issues. Bringing together these topics, his book, Privacy at the Margins, examines how privacy can function as an expressive, anti-subordination tool of resistance to surveillance regimes. His current work focuses on the legal construction of gender and legal protections for transgender people, including his article, Identity by Committee, a 2024 recipient of a Dukeminier Award for best LGBTQ law review articles. His other scholarship has been published in the Georgetown Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, and Columbia Law Review Online, and he served as editor of and contributing author to AIDS and the Law (Wolters Kluwer, 5th ed., 2016; 6th ed., 2020). His shorter work has appeared in Slate, Salon, The New Republic, and elsewhere.

Prior to joining Colorado Law School in 2017, he was an Acting Assistant Professor of Lawyering at New York University School of Law and while in practice Scott served as co-counsel with the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Transgender Law Center, and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund. His contributions to LGBTQ+ rights have been recognized through awards by both the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association and the Colorado LGBTQ+ Bar Association.

Scott clerked on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals for Judge Dolores Sloviter and for Judge Robert Chatigny of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut. Scott graduated from Duke Law School, magna cum laude and Order of the Coif, in 2008, receiving both a J.D. and LL.M in International & Comparative Law. He received his B.A., magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from Whitman College in 2005.

Areas of Specialty 

Civil Rights (includes Fair Housing, Race Relations and Election Law), Constitutional Law, Disability Law, Privacy Law, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Issues
 

Courses and Publications