7/21/2016

A Delaware Law School professor who is a frequent legal opinion contributor to multiple national online media outlets is diversifying his commentary to include a new column.

Professor John Culhane, the H. Albert Young Fellow in Constitutional Law, will write a parenting column for Slate. “Hey Daddy!” will run the third Tuesday of each month. Culhane, who has been writing law-related commentary pieces for Slate and Politico for years, as well as The Huffington Post, said he approached Slate editors with the idea for a monthly presence.

His writing typically touches on his areas of legal expertise: public health, the legal rights of same-sex couples, victim compensation in mass tragedies and torts like those associated with football concussions. He grew interested in establishing a regular feature where he writes about one topic. His style is conversational with humor where appropriate.

“Over the past few years I’ve really enjoyed writing about the law for a broader audience. In this case, the topic is even broader – there will be some discussion of the law, I guess, but that’s not really the focus,” Culhane said. “It’s kind of exciting to be doing something like this.”

Culhane lives in Philadelphia with his spouse David and their twin 11-year-old daughters. He said he mulls his topic ideas and discusses them with David before he begins writing. David gets the first read of his work, as Culhane sees him as more adept at setting appropriate boundaries for family privacy.

The new column will focus on the experiences of being a parent – and sometimes of being a parent who happens to be gay. His first installment, which he called a “soft launch” of the column – published before it was branded and officially rolled out – centered on the family’s attendance at a vigil in Philadelphia after the nightclub massacre in Orlando. The emotional experience compelled him to start the column earlier than scheduled.

Culhane said he isn’t going to stop writing about other topics. He’s currently talking with Politico about a piece on gun litigation – something he tracks nationally.

“I still have a lot of other interests, and those won’t disappear,” he said. “But this should be fun.”