Indiana University Maurer School of Law Professor Jeannine Bell has been appointed to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ Indiana Advisory Committee, a national body charged with developing national civil rights policy and enhancing enforcement of federal civil rights laws.
The bipartisan, independent commission has jurisdiction over voting rights as well as discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, national origin, or in the administration of justice.
Bell, the Richard S. Melvin Professor of Law, is a nationally recognized scholar in the areas of policing and hate crime. She has written extensively on criminal justice issues, and her research is broadly interdisciplinary, touching on both political science and law, and relying on her empirical expertise.
She will serve a four-year term on the Indiana Advisory Committee.
“I’m pleased to serve our state as a member of its advisory committee to the Commission on Civil Rights,” Bell said. “The state and territorial committees serve as the Commission’s eyes and ears on the ground, and I’m honored to be a part of such an important mission at a critical time in our nation’s history.”
Advisory Committees have recently examined a number of timely and topical issues, including voting rights, seclusion and restraint of students with disabilities, women’s prisons, civil rights impacts of civil asset forfeiture, immigration issues, policing practices, human trafficking, fair housing, civil rights issues related to payday lending, and criminal justice issues, among others.
Bell’s most recent book, Hate Thy Neighbor: Move-in Violence and the Persistence of Racial Segregation in American Housing, was published by NYU Press in 2013, and in 2002 she authored Policing Hatred: Law Enforcement, Civil Rights, and Hate Crime, an ethnography of a big city police hate crime unit.
The Commission maintains 56 State and U.S. Territory Advisory Committees (STACs), one for each state and the District of Columbia. Each is composed of citizen volunteers familiar with local and state civil rights issues. The members assist the Commission with its fact-finding, investigative, and information dissemination functions.
Committees hold briefings with experts, solicit public testimony, and produce reports and advisory documents on a number of issues.
Bell is active in a number of other national organizations, including the Law and Society Association, of which she has served as trustee and treasurer. She served as co-editor of the Law & Society Review from 2016-2019. Bell also was a member of the American Political Association’s Presidential Taskforce on Political Violence and Terrorism from 2004-2008. In 2019, she was elected to membership in the American Law Institute.
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