University of Minnesota, B.A.
University of Chicago, J.D.
Professor Myron Orfield is the Executive Director of the Institute on Race & Poverty, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and an affiliate faculty member at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He teaches and writes in the fields of civil rights, state and local government, state and local finance, land use, questions of regional governance, and the legislative process. For 2005-06, Professor Orfield served as the Fesler-Lampert Chair in Urban and Regional Affairs.
Professor Orfield graduated, summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota, was a graduate student at Princeton University, and has a J.D. from the University of Chicago, where he was a member of the University of Chicago Law Review. Following law school, he clerked for the United States Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit and then returned to the University of Chicago Law School as a Research Associate and Bradley Fellow at the Center for Studies in Criminal Justice. After working as an associate at Faegre & Benson in Minneapolis, he served as a Special Assistant Attorney General of Minnesota in the Solicitor General's Division.
In 1990, Professor Orfield was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives, where he served five terms, and to the Minnesota Senate in 2000, where he served one term. There he was the architect of a series of important changes in land use, fair housing, and school and local government aid programs. His first book, Metropolitics: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability (Brookings 1997), a study of local government structure and demographics, relates to these efforts. For over a decade, Professor Orfield has been president of a nationally respected regional research organization undertaking studies involving the legal, demographic and land use profiles of various American metropolitan areas. His second book, American Metropolitics: The New Suburban Reality (Brookings 2002), is a compilation of his work involving the nation's 25 largest regions.
For further information on Professor Orfield, please consult his curriculum vitae.
A Missed Opportunity: Minnesota’s Failed Experiment with Choice-Based Integration, (with Margaret C. Hobday and Geneva Finn), 35:3 WM. Mitchell L. Rev. 101 (2009).
The Region and Taxation: School Finance, Cities and the Hope for Regional Reform, 55 Buff. L. Rev. 91 (2007).
The Minnesota Fiscal Disparities Act of 1971: The Twin Cities' Struggle and Blueprint for Regional Cooperation, 33 Wm. Mitchell L. Rev. 591 (2007).
Segregation and Environmental Justice. 7 Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology 147 (2005).
Economic and Racial Polarization in Twin Cities Schools, 17 Hamline J. Pub. L. & Pol'y 271 (1996).
Model Tax Sharing Legislation Statute, in American Planning Association Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change (1996).
Tax Equity Devices and Tax Relief Programs, in American Planning Association Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change (1996).
Deterrence, Perjury, and the Heater Factor: An Exclusionary Rule in the Chicago Criminal Courts, 63 U. Colo. L. Rev. 75 (1992).
Comment, The Exclusionary Rule and Deterrence: An Empirical Study of Chicago Police Narcotics Officers, 54 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1016 (1987).
B. Law Related: Regional Planning and other Social Science
Parcel Data for Research and Policy, in Geography Compass, Manson, S. M., H.A. Sander, D. Ghosh, J. M. Oakes, M. W. Orfield, W. J. Craig, T.F. Luce, E. Myott, S. Sun. (forthcoming 2009).
Governing American Metropolitan Areas: Spatial Policy and Regional Governance, (with Thomas Luce) in Metropolitan Areas, Megaregions, and Spatial Planning, Catherine Ross and Cheryl Contant, Editors. (Cambridge, Island Press, forthcoming 2009).
Beyond Segregation: Toward A Shared Vision, in Building Sustainable Metropolitan Communities: Breakthrough Stories, (M. Paloma Pavel, ed., MIT Press, forthcoming 2008).
A National Survey of Local Land-Use Regulations: Steps Toward a Beginning, Robert W. Burchell and Michael L. Lahr, Principle Investigators. (Rutgers, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Affairs, July 2008).
When the Feds Won't Act: School Desegregation, State Courts, and Minnesota's The Choice is Yours Program, (with Baris Gumus-Dawes), in Poverty & Race Research Action Council Newsletter, Volume 17, Number 1. January/February, 2008.
Impediments to Integration of Immigrants: A Case Study in Minnesota, in Suburban Immigrant Gateways: Immigration and Incorporation in New U.S. Metropolitan Destinations (Brookings Institution Press, 2007).
Expanding Educational Opportunity Through School and Housing Choice (with Nicholas Wallace), in CURA Reporter, volume 37, number 2 (2007).
Building Regional Coalitions Between Cities and Suburbs, in Growing Smarter: Planning for Regional Equity and Environmental Justice (Robert D. Bullard ed.) MIT Press (2006).
Atlanta Metropatterns: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability, in Urban Sprawl: A Comprehensive Reference Guide (David Soule, ed.) Greenwood Press (2006).
Comment, 13 Hous. Pol'y Deb. 659 (2003) (commenting on Scott A. Bollen, In Through the Back Door: Social Equity and Regional Governance, 13 Hous. Pol'y Deb. 631 (2003)).
The Need for Tax Base Sharing, in The Value of Land: The Lincoln Institute for Land Policy Annual Review (1998). (Debate with Professor William Fischel).
The "Push-Pull" of Regional Polarization, Lusk Forum (1997).
Legal Briefs
Brief for Myron Orfield et.al., as Amici Curiae supporting Plaintiffs, Jackson v. MERS Inc., No A08-397 (Minn. April 21, 2008).
Brief for Housing Scholars and Research & Advocacy Organizations as Amici Curiae Supporting Respondents, Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School Dist. No. 1, 127 S.Ct. 2738 (2006).
In re Adoption of the 2003 Low Income Housing Tax Credit Qualified Allocation Plan, 369 N.J. Super. 1, 848 A.2D 1 (2004).
Other Reports and Publications, also available on ssrn.com
Orfield, Myron and Luce, Thomas. February 2002. Wisconsin Metropatterns: Regional Cooperation, Economic growth and Environmental protection.
Orfield, Myron and Luce, Thomas, Oleson, Benjamin. October 2001. Boston Metropatterns: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability in Greater Boston.
Orfield, Myron and Luce, Thomas. October 2001. Erie Metropatterns: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability in the Erie Region.
Orfield, Myron, Luce, Thomas, Kleidman, Robert, and Oleson, Ben. September 2001. Northeast Ohio Metropatterns: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability in the Northeast Ohio Region.
Orfield, Myron and Luce, Thomas. September 2001. Ohio's Mahoning Valley Regional Metropatterns: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability.
Orfield, Myron and Luce, Thomas. August 2001. Cincinnati Metropatterns: A Regional Agenda for Community and Stability in Cincinnati.
Orfield, Myron. January 2001. Central Valley Metropatterns: Regional Challenges in California's Central Valley.
Orfield, Myron. December 2000. Puget Sound Metropatterns: Social Separation and Sprawl in the Puget Sound Region.
Orfield, Myron. October 2000. Saginaw Metropolitics: A regional Agenda for Community and Stability.
Orfield, Myron. May 2000. Kentucky's Rural/Metropolitan Fiscal Divide: A Statewide Agenda for Sustainable Communities.
