Quinnipiac University
Robert C. Farrell

Professor of Law Emeritus

Robert Farrell is Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law. He has been a member of the law faculty since 1984, and has taught Contracts, Property, Administrative Law, Remedies, and Equal Protection. Most recently he served as the Associate Dean and he was the founding director of the law school's summer program at Trinity College in Dublin.

Prior to joining Quinnipiac, Farrell worked as an attorney for the General Counsel’s Office at the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in Washington, D.C. He began his law teaching career as an assistant professor at George Mason University School of Law in Arlington, Virginia.

Farrell’s principal area of scholarly interest is the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, with a particular focus on the rational basis standard. His work has been widely cited by legal scholars, in court opinions, and in practitioners’ briefs. In 2009, he was selected as an Irish Legal 100 Honoree. He currently serves as a member of the Board of the Sappern Fellows Program, an organization that places and supports law students who offer guidance and assistance to pro se litigants seeking restraining orders and divorce decrees in Connecticut Family Court.

Education

  • BA, Trinity College
  • JD, Harvard University

Areas of Expertise

  • Equal Protection

Organization

  • Law

Office Location

  • School of Law and Education 262

Mail Drop

  • LW-FAC

Selected Publications

Law Reviews

Richard Posner: A Class of One

Robert C. Farrell

71 SMU L. REV. 1041 (2018)

Law Reviews

Equal Protection Rational Basis Cases in the Supreme Court since Romer v. Evans

Robert C. Farrell

14 GEO. J.L. & PUB. POL'Y 441 (2016)

Law Reviews

Justice Kennedy's Idiosyncratic Understanding of Equal Protection and Due Process, and Its Costs

Robert C. Farrell

32 QUINNIPIAC L. REV. 439 (2014)

Books

EQUAL PROTECTION: CASES AND MATERIALS

ROBERT C. FARRELL & ALISON E. CONROY

(Vandeplas Publishing 2013)

Law Reviews

The Two Versions of Rational-Basis Review and Same-Sex Relationships

Robert C. Farrell

86 WASH. L. REV. 281 (2011)

Law Reviews

Affirmative Action and the Individual Right to Equal Protection

Robert C. Farrell

71 U. PITT. L. REV. 241 (2009)

Law Reviews

The Equal Protection Class of One Claim: Olech, Enquist, and the Supreme Court's Misadventure

Robert C. Farrell

61 S. C. L. REV. 107 (2009)

Law Reviews

Why Grammar Matters: Conjugating Verbs in Modern Legal Opinions

Robert C. Farrell

40 LOY. U. CHI. L.J. 1 (2008)

Law Reviews

An Excess of Methods: Identifying Implied Fundamental Rights in the Supreme Court

Robert C. Farrell

26 ST. LOUIS U. PUB. L. REV. 203 (2007)

Law Reviews

Classes, Persons, Equal Protection, and Village of Willowbrook v. Olech

Robert C. Farrell

78 WASH. L. REV. 367 (2003)

Law Reviews

Successful Rational Basis Claims in the Supreme Court from the 1971 Term through Romer v. Evans

Robert C. Farrell

32 IND. L. REV. 357 (1999)

Law Reviews

Title IX or College Football

Robert C. Farrell

32 HOUS. L. REV. 993 (1995)

Law Reviews

Classifications That Disadvantage Newcomers and the Problem of Equality

Robert C. Farrell

28 U. RICH. L. REV. 547 (1994)

Law Reviews

Legislative Purpose and Equal Protection's Rationality Review

Robert C. Farrell

37 VILL. L. REV. 1 (1992)

Databases