On Monday morning, Attorneys General from Maryland and the District of Columbia filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump (Wharton ‘68) alleging he violated the emoluments clause of the Constitution by allowing his businesses to accept payments from foreign governments. While Brian Frosh, the Maryland AG, is known to be a fan of the Grateful Dead (or at least one particular quote from Jerry Garcia), Karl Racine, the District’s AG, is known as a former member of Penn basketball.
Racine was born in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, in 1963. Following his parents’ emigration to the United States six months after he was born, he and his sister lived with his aunt, uncle and grandmother. When he was three, he and his sister came to Washington and were reunited with their parents. He was in D.C. public schools through the early years of high school, when sinking grades and troubled friendships forced his family to enroll him at St. John’s College High School, an all-male Catholic military school. He played baseball at St. John’s, but excelled at basketball. In his 1981 senior season, he was named to the Washington Post All-Metropolitan team. He was also selected to represent D.C. in that season’s McDonald Capital Classic, where Racine competed with against a McDonald’s All-America team that included Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Adrian Branch. Although being recruited from a number of programs offering athletic scholarships, his parents encouraged him to focus on education over finances and choose the University of Pennsylvania.
The 6’1” guard received the 1981-82 G. Fred DiBona Award as Penn’s Most Outstanding Newcomer. In his sophomore year, Racine was named the team’s Best Defensive player. For the 1983-84 season, he averaged 14.2 points on 45 percent shooting, earning him Penn’s Arthur Kiefaber Most Valuable Player award, as well as spots on the Second-Team for the Ivy League and the Big 5. In 1984-85, Racine was named team captain and led the Quakers to the Ivy League championship (13-14, 10-4). He was, again, named team MVP, second-team All-Ivy and second-team All-Big 5, in addition to his selection as the team’s most inspirational player. Racine graduated in the spring of 1985 with a degree in Economics.
Follow this Penn-Princeton Rivalry link and scroll down to the Feb. 1, 1983 game where there is link to a video showing Racine being fouled by Craig Robinson and hitting the game winning free throw in the Quakers’ 41-39 victory.
Racine graduated the University of Virginia Law School in 1989. In 1992, he joined the D.C. Public Defenders office. He later became Associate White House Counsel for President Bill Clinton in his second term. Following his return to corporate practice, he became the first person ever elected to the district’s Attorney General office in November 2014. He continues in that position, as he considers a run for mayor of the nation’s capital.