Balkinization  

Monday, April 29, 2019

Frank B. Cross, In Memoriam (1955-2019)

Stephen Griffin


I wanted to record the passing of my wonderful friend Frank Cross, a longtime faculty member at the University of Texas, Austin.  Other obituaries will recall that he was one of the best (NDT) college debaters of the 1970s and a gifted teacher.  I wish to highlight the tremendous loss to academia and legal scholarship.  Frank contributed enormously by continually challenging himself.  Already a UT faculty member, he embarked on a course of study in statistics that transformed his work and gave us new insights.  He began an extraordinary run of publication in leading law reviews with an article that questioned work that downplayed the contribution of lawyers to the economy.  He published many noteworthy books including Decision Making in the U.S. Courts of Appeals (2007); Measuring Judicial Activism (2009)(with Stefanie A. Lindquist); The Failed Promise of Originalism (2012); The Theory and Practice of Statutory Interpretation (2012); and Constitutions and Religious Freedom (2015).  Frank contributed as long as he could.  Robert Prentice, his friend on the UT faculty, said in his obituary: “Frank bravely battled adrenoleukodystrophy his entire adult life.  This cruel disease slowly robbed Frank of his ability to move, but never took away his love of life or sense of humor.  ALD ultimately defeated Frank, but it did not define him.”  Everyone who knew Frank will miss him.  He had this rare gift: an independent mind and an independent heart.


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