Professor Sahar F. Aziz was invited by the American Bar Association to identify and describe a trial for the ABA Journal November cover story “10 Trials That Changed the World.” Professor Aziz was one of only ten distinguished lawyers from around the world the Journal selected to discuss one historic trial each. 

“At their best, trials provide insight into the human condition while they illuminate principles of the law. And sometimes they even change the course of history,” ABA Journal assistant managing editor James Podgers points out. “In some cases, however, trials are more than compelling stories about the search for justice. They become the stuff of history through their impact on the law and society. While the full impact of these cases is difficult to measure at the moment they occur, it often is clear that their impact will be profound.”

Professor Aziz’s contribution, A Court Decides Who Is White Under the Law, offers insight on the 1915 naturalization case of Dow v. United States where the court found people from the Middle East and North Africa white based on societal notions of race.

View Professor Aziz’s article here.

Read the ABA Journal’s cover feature,
"10 Trials That Changed the World."

The "10 Trials That Changed The World"  article originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of the ABA Journal with the headline: "Courting Destiny."

(Image: Immigrants at Ellis Island. Courtesy Library of Congress.)

About the ABA Journal and the ABA:

The ABA Journal is the flagship magazine of the American Bar Association. The ABA Journal is read by half of the nation’s 1 million lawyers every month. It covers the trends, people and finances of the legal profession from Wall Street to Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue. The ABA is the largest voluntary professional association in the world. With more than 400,000 members, the ABA provides law school accreditation, continuing legal education, information about the law, programs to assist lawyers and judges in their work, and initiatives to improve the legal system for the public. -- courtesy of the ABAJournal.com

About Professor Sahar F. Aziz:

Sahar F. Aziz joined the faculty in 2011 as an associate professor of law. Prior to joining Professor Aziz was an adjunct professor at the Georgetown University Law Center where she taught national security and civil rights law. Professor Aziz served as a senior policy advisor for the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) where she worked on law and policy at the intersection of national security and civil rights. Prior to joining DHS, Professor Aziz was an associate at Cohen Milstein Sellers and Toll PLLP in Washington, D.C. where she litigated class action civil rights lawsuits alleging a nationwide pattern and practice of gender discrimination in pay and promotion.

(ABA Journal images, quotes, and "About" used with permission of the ABA Journal.)