R. Shep Melnick is the Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Professor of American Politics at Boston College and co-chair of the Harvard Program on Constitutional Government.  He is the author of The Transformation of Title IX:  Regulating Gender Equality in Education, (Brookings, 2018), Between the Lines:  Interpreting Welfare Rights (Brookings,1994), and Regulation and the Courts:  The Case of the Clean Air Act (Brookings, 1983), as well as many articles on courts, agencies, and public policy. He is currently completing a book on education and the civil rights state.  In 2012 he received the American Political Science Association Law and Courts Section’s “Lasting Contribution” award.  He has also been a Research Associate at Brookings, President of the New England Political Science Association, and an elected member of the NH House of Representatives.