The son of a fireman, he grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Yale Heights and won a scholarship to the McDonogh School in Ownings Mills, MD, graduating in 1966. He also ran the school's Students for Goldwater campaign in 1964. He then attended Yale University, where he shared classes with his friend
Clarence Thomas, and was a contemporary of
Bill Clinton and
Hillary Clinton at Yale Law School. He was a member of the Yale Political Union and he earned a B.A. summa cum laude in 1970 and a J.D. in 1974.