Wesley Wells Horton (born April 16, 1942 in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

) is a Connecticut appellate lawyer. He is currently Of Counsel at McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP. In 2005, he successfully represented the City of New London in

Kelo v. New London ''Kelo v. City of New London'', 545 U.S. 469 (2005), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private own ...

before the U.S. Supreme Court. Horton received his B.A. from Harvard College in 1964 and his J.D. from the

University of Connecticut School of Law The University of Connecticut School of Law (UConn Law) is the law school associated with the University of Connecticut and located in Hartford, Connecticut. It is the only public law school in Connecticut and one of only four in New England. In ...

in 1970. Before entering private practice, he served as a law clerk for Justice Charles House of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1970 to 1971. Horton researched and prepared the plaintiffs' position in the landmark school finance case Horton v. Meskill on behalf of his son Barnaby, the lead plaintiff. Within Connecticut, and prior to ''Kelo'', Horton was known for his groundbreaking win in

Sheff v. O'Neill ''Sheff v. O'Neill'' refers to a 1989 lawsuit and the subsequent 1996 Connecticut Supreme Court case (''Sheff v. O'Neill'', 238 Conn. 1, 678 A.2d 1267) that resulted in a landmark decision regarding civil rights and the right to education. A judge f ...

. In ''Sheff'', Horton successfully persuaded the Connecticut Supreme Court that education was a fundamental right under the

Connecticut Constitution The Constitution of the State of Connecticut is the basic governing document of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was approved by referendum on December 14, 1965, and proclaimed by the governor as adopted on December 30. It comprises 14 articl ...

and that de facto segregation in schools violated this right. Horton has authored scholarly books chronicling the history of the Connecticut Supreme Court (2008) and the Connecticut Constitution (2012), the former with the assistance of attorneys Brendon P. Levesque and Jeffrey White.

References

External links

McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP

Connecticut State Constitution by Wesley W. Horton

The History of the Connecticut Supreme Court by Wesley W. Horton
1942 births Lawyers from Hartford, Connecticut Living people People from Connecticut Harvard College alumni University of Connecticut School of Law alumni {{US-law-bio-stub