The Princeton Varsity Club was pleased to welcome Stuart Taylor ’70 back to campus as part of the Jake McCandless ’51 PVC Speaker Series. Taylor presented his lecture, “Until Proven Innocent: An Examination of the Duke Lacrosse Case” at McCosh 50 on the campus of Princeton University on Thursday, October 18, 2007.
Stuart S. Taylor, Jr. is a weekly opinion columnist forΒ National Journaland contributing editor forΒ Newsweek, writing about legal, policy and political issues of national and international importance. Some of his columns are republished by legal publications includingΒ Legal Times. He has won various journalism awards and appeared on all major television and radio networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, Court TV, C-Span, National Public Radio, BBC, Canadian Broadcasting, Australian Broadcasting. He is also a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and co-author, with KC Johnson, of a new, critically acclaimed book,Β Until Proven Innocent: Political Correctness and the Shameful Injustices of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case.Β
TaylorΒ graduated fromΒ PrincetonΒ UniversityΒ in 1970 with an A.B. in History. After working as a reporter for the BaltimoreΒ Evening SunΒ andSunΒ from 1971-1974, he moved to Harvard Law School, serving as a note editor for the Harvard Law Review and graduating in 1977 with high honors, at the top of his class. Among other awards, he won a Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship, which he used to travel around the world during the academic year 1977-1978.Β
TaylorΒ practiced law with Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering from 1978-1980. He joined theΒ New York TimesΒ Washington Bureau in 1980, covering legal affairs from 1980-1985 and the Supreme Court from 1985-1988. Since then he has written commentary and in-depth magazine articles forΒ The American Lawyer,Β Legal TimesΒ and their affiliates from 1989-1997 and forΒ National JournalΒ andΒ NewsweekΒ since 1998. He has also been published in other periodicals includingΒ The New Republic,Β Harperβs,Β Readerβs Digest, The Los Angeles Times,Β andΒ The Washington PostΒ and has contributed chapters to various books.
TaylorΒ taughtΒ a one-semester seminar atΒ PrincetonΒ University, “Writing About Law,” as McGraw Distinguished Lecturer in Writing for 1988.Β He lives inΒ WashingtonΒ with his wife, Sally Lamar Ellis, and daughters Sarah and Molly. He is 59 years old.
Taylor’s journalism honors include a share ofΒ The American Lawyerβs National Magazine Award in 1991 for a March 1990 special issue on the drug war; being a finalist for a National Magazine Award in 1997 for an article inΒ The American LawyerΒ on the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit, and in 1993 for two articles inΒ The American Lawyeron the legal-lobbying battle between the Baby Bells and their competitors; a second-place National Headliner Award in 2002 for best special magazine column on one subject; the 1991 Golden Quill Award for Excellence in Editorial Writing, from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors; a special citation in 1990 from the Penn State School of Communications for Improving Journalism Through Critical Evaluation; and a nomination byΒ The New York TimesΒ in 1988 for a Pulitzer Prize for his Supreme Court coverage.
The Jake McCandless β51 PVCΒ Speaker Series began in 2004 with a lecture fromΒ NCAA President Myles Brand.Β The series was endowed in the name of J. L. “Jake” McCandless β51, who coachedΒ PrincetonΒ to the 1969 Ivy League football championship during the Tigersβ centennial year of football.Β
For more information on theΒ Jake McCandless ’51 PVCΒ Speaker Series and to view excerpts from past lectures, pleaseΒ click here.