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Nathan Goetting,
M.A., J.D.
Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice
and Jurisprudence
Dept. Chair
Director, The George Romney Institute for Law and Public Policy
ngoetting@adrian.edu
Jones 209, 517-264-3261
Master of Arts, Philosophy
Western Michigan University
Juris Doctor, Constitutional Law &
Civil Rights
Thomas M. Cooley Law School
Experience
Professor Goetting taught philosophy at
Grand Valley State University from 2003-2008
while earning his law degree.
Prof. Goetting's experience with government,
law and public policy is not limited to
the classroom. While in his last year
of law school he worked as an intern in
The Innocence Project, whose purpose is
to apply the latest DNA testing to evidence
that may exonerate wrongfully incarcerated
inmates in Michigan prisons. In this program
he worked on eight rape and/or murder
cases of the most involved and sophisticated
kind, studying police and medical reports,
drafting legal documents, visiting incarcerated
clients, and otherwise immersing himself
in the details of this charged political
and social justice issue. More than just
working to set innocent prisoners free,
this experience allowed him to consider
up close how, even in an enlightened system
of justice like our own, people can sometimes
be convicted of crimes they have not committed.
Prof. Goetting has also worked as a
teacher inside the Michigan Corrections
System. While a part of The Community
Working Classics program at the Muskegon
Correctional Facility he and a group of
professors of various disciplines from
Grand Valley State University introduced
a new model of prison reform that sought
to reduce criminal recidivism by bringing
a classical liberal arts education to
inmates convicted of violent crimes. Through
it he has taught Plato, Dostoyevsky, classic
films and other great works to convicts
who, despite their condition, have expressed
a willingness to improve themselves.
Research Interests
Legal theory, fundamental rights,
civil liberties.
He has a particular interest in studying
the interplay between moral theory and
jurisprudence-how moral commandments become
codified in law-and the extent to which
it is possible for morality and legality
to function harmoniously in our criminal
justice system.
Recent Scholarship
Prof. Goetting has published more than a dozen writings on legal issues, most of which have centered on constitutional law and civil liberties. His 2010 essay “On the Torture Lawyers,” is a moral meditation and legal assessment of the attorneys who drafted and signed the famous 2002 memos regarding interrogation techniques used in the global “war on terror.” Recently his scholarship has focused on the constitutional rights of tribal American Indians. In 2009 he presented an article he published titled “Red Cloud’s Mark: When Peace Treaties Become Weapons of Mass Destruction” at the National Association of Native American Studies conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He followed this in 2010 with an article published in Indigenous Policy Review titled “The Marshall Trilogy and the Constitutional Dehumanization of American Indians.” This article examines the impact of the three landmark 19th century U.S. Supreme Court Cases which precipitated the notorious marches along the “Trail of Tears” and still largely define the status of Native American tribes under the U.S. Constitution. Later this year he will again visit the National Association of Native American Studies to present his third writing in this area, "On White Scholars Teaching Federal Indian Law," which is an exploration of cross-racial dynamics in the classroom. |
