William Cohen
June 1, 1933-April 11, 2015
Palo Alto, California

William Cohen, the C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, Emeritus at Stanford Law School, died April 11 at age 81 after living with Parkinson's disease for many years.

After earning his law degree at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1956, Professor Cohen clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, whom Cohen later praised for his "easy, fluid writing style" and his "uncanny knack of putting his finger on the essential issue of a confusing and difficult problem." When Cohen left Justice Douglas's chambers to begin his teaching career at the University of Minnesota Law School, he was just 24 years old. Later he taught at the UCLA School of Law and Stanford Law School, where he retired in 1999.

Professor Cohen devoted more than five decades to the study and teaching of constitutional law. He wrote or co-wrote five books (some of which appeared in multiple editions), as well as dozens of articles and essays. In his writing he borrowed Justice Douglas' simple, lucid style, often inflected by Professor Cohen's wry wit. As a specialist in constitutional law, Cohen was unafraid to chide the Supreme Court for entangling the law in irrational distinctions that "added one more layer of tar to the analytical highway."

His casebook on constitutional law, coauthored with Jonathan Varat and Vikram Amar and now in its 14th edition, has given generations of law students a clear path through the court?s doctrinal thickets. A reviewer wrote that he had "not yet seen a more complete book, one that is better written and more readable, as carefully planned and edited ... and as student-friendly."

Professor Cohen joined the Stanford Law School faculty in 1970, where he became a storied instructor of constitutional law, federal jurisdiction and torts. He often was seen sparring with his great friend and fellow constitutional law theorist, Gerald Gunther. Their friendship endured so long, as Cohen wrote in a tribute after Gunther's death in 2002, that "Gerry and I had each come to know what the other would say" and carried on their doctrinal debates in well-worn half-sentences. In those debates Professor Cohen always took the more liberal part, championing broad protections for civil liberties in the jurisprudential tradition of his mentor, Justice Douglas.

Professor Cohen was also a visiting faculty member at Arizona State University, Magdalen College Oxford and the European University in Florence, Italy. His first wife, Betty, predeceased him, as did his son, David Cohen. He is survived by two daughters from that marriage, Barbara Miron and Rebecca Cohen Porter (Bruce Porter), as well as Nancy Mahoney Cohen, whom he married in 1976; their daughter is Margaret Cohen Radu (Gabriel Radu). He also leaves two grandsons, James Badia (Adina Badia) and Nico Radu, and two great grandsons, Jackson and Marcus Badia; two brothers, Henry and Phillip Cohen; and a sister, Miriam Goldberg. His caregiver, Kato Tonga, has become a treasured part of his family. He lived in Palo Alto.

Donations may be made to the Palo Alto Family YMCA or All Saints Episcopal Church Palo Alto. A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. on April 29 at All Saints Episcopal Church, 555 Waverley St., Palo Alto, Calif.

-- Stanford Law School

Tags: teacher/educator