Different But Equal: The Human Rights of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities,

Abstract

I first met Stan Herr, appropriately enough, on a conference call, about eight years ago, while I was still Director of the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International Human Rights at Yale Law School, Stan's alma mater. The 1995 Special Olympics World Games were about to be held in New Haven, Connecticut, and were scheduled to be the largest sporting event to be held in the world that year. Sitting in my Yale office, I was taken aback to get a call from the White House, where Stan was working for the Clinton administration as an adviser on disability issues. I was told cryptically that a "Mr. Herr" was on the line. My first thought, dusting off my high school German, was that "Mr. Herr," translated into German, was "Herr Herr" ("Mr. Mister"). Anyone named "Herr Herr," I thought, had to be a mensch. I was right. The ebullient voice that came booming over the speakerphone sounded like it came from someone who was at least eight feet tall. When I actually met Stan a few weeks later, I realized that he was only 6' 5." But he struck me then, as he strikes me now, as a giant of a man, who used his special stature to lead, to stand up for others, and to see much farther than lesser persons.