Home > West's Encyclopedia of American Law > Mackinnon, Catharine Alice

Catharine A. MacKinnon is a law professor, author, and one of the leading scholars in feminist legal theory. MacKinnon's ideas about SEXUAL HARASSMENT and PORNOGRAPHY have forced courts and legal commentators to reexamine their assumptions. Her controversial proposal for suppressing pornography was enacted by the city council of Indianapolis, but the ordinance was ultimately overturned by a federal appeals court.

MacKinnon was born in 1946 in Minnesota. Her father, George E. MacKinnon, was a prominent REPUBLICAN PARTY leader who served one term in Congress and later became a federal appeals court judge. MacKinnon graduated from Smith College in 1969 and then attended Yale University Law School. She received her...