WCL Raskin Book

In 1913, Ellen Spencer Mussey, a founder of the Washington College of Law and its first dean, served as the marshal of a women’s suffrage march in Washington, D.C. On Capitol Hill, inadequate police protection failed to prevent a mob’s attack on the marchers. In that attack, Mussey was injured and hospitalized. Many years later, as a faculty member of the law school that Mussey founded, Jamin was a respected teacher and scholar but also a kind, witty, and even-tempered colleague both trusted and admired. He represented Ross Perot regarding exclusion from the Presidential Debates and later criticized the exclusion of third parties from election ballots. Jamin also directed the school’s Law and Government Program. That Programemphasized the importance of lawto effective, open, ethical, and accountable government. Like the women who founded the Washington College of Law, Jamin fought for social justice and the rule of law. Jaminand I servedon the school’shiringcommittee together, an undertaking which required interviewing dozens of candidates, one after the other, over a two and a half-day period, during a national hiring convention. When the committeemet to discuss them, we found it hard to visualize the candidates and to recall our impressions. Jamin had solved this problem by writing a haiku for each candidate, capturing their personalities and attributes.

On January 6, 2021, Jamin and his family sheltered in the U.S. Capitol from a mob incited to insurrection by President Trump—not far from the site of the mob attack on Mussey, 108 years before. Jamin emerged from the attack on the Capitol to lead a courageous and skilled impeachment of Donald Trump. To us, his former colleagues, Jamin is ours. We are forever bound to him by respect and affection. Robert Vaughn, Professor of Law Emeritus