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University of Oregon School of Law

Contact Information
  • Email: paquino[at]uoregon.edu
  • Phone:
Location
1515 Agate Street
Eugene, OR 97403
United States
See map: Google Maps
Chapter Contacts
  • Pat Aquino - Director, paquino[at]uoregon.edu
  • Elizabeth Wooten - Assistant Director, ewooten[at]uoregon.edu
  • Derek Larwick - Moot Court Coach, larwick[at]uoregon.edu
  • Emily Snook - Secretary, esnook[at]uoregon.edu
  • Kevin Hetherington - Treasurer, khetheri[at]uoregon.edu
Recent Stories

ACS Oregon Mentorship Program

The ACS Oregon Lawyer Chapter and the ACS student chapters at the University of Oregon School of Law, Willamette University College of Law and the Lewis & Clark Law School are proud to invite you to participate in the ACS Oregon Student/Lawyer Mentorship Program for the 2009-2010 academic year.

Since 2001, ACS has grown exponentially from a small campus organization to a national network of progressive scholars, judges, practitioners, advocates, public officials and law students. ACS and its members strive to promote the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and the fundamental values it expresses: individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law. Mentorship is a vital tool in achieving our mission because it offers a means by which more senior ACS supporters can provide career and professional guidance to more junior members of the community.

To this end, we have developed a student/lawyer mentorship program to pair new and experienced lawyers from various career paths with law students. The program works as follows:

• An Oregon Lawyer Chapter member is paired with a member of an Oregon law Student Chapter. To the extent possible, mentors and mentees are matched based on common interests and current or desired area of practice.

• Mentors and mentees should meet in person at least twice per semester. ACS Oregon hosts one networking event each semester, which we strongly encourage all mentors and mentees to attend. Other opportunities to meet include coffee, lunch, after-work drinks, job shadowing and other ACS and career development events.

• Mentors generally help their mentees network and find employment. Mentoring is extremely rewarding and a great way to encourage and guide upcoming lawyers or learn from established attorneys. Often, mentor-mentee relationships turn into friendships and professional partnerships.

To participate in the program, please review the ACS Oregon Student/Lawyer Mentorship Program Description below and fill out the Online Mentor/Mentee Profile Form by clicking HERE. You may also download the Profile Form HERE, and email your profile and any questions to Oregon@ACSLaw.org.

ACS Oregon Lawyer Chapter Hosts "Keeping Faith with the Constitution"

On March 10, 2010, approximately 40 ACS supporters gathered in Portland to here Professor Pam Karlan talk about a progressive vision of constitutional interpretation -- a vision she has embraced in her recent book Keeping Faith with the Constitution.

ACS Oregon Lawyer Chapter Hosts a Screening and Discussion of "A Class Apart"

On January 28, 2010, approximately 30 ACS supporters gathered at the Lucky Labrador Public House in Portland for a winter social and CLE event. While enjoying beer and pizza, the crowd watched "A Class Apart," a film about the landmark case of Hernandez v. Texas, and listened to Lewis & Clark Law Professor Bill Funk and Hinshaw & Culbertson lawyer Judy Parker discuss the case in historical and social context.

Steve Wax Book Talk: Kafka Comes to America

Public Defender Steve Wax came to the University of Oregon School of Law on April 1st to discuss his experience as a public defendant in the "War on Terror." A book-signing and reception followed.

From The New Yorker: Wax, the head of the Oregon Federal Public Defenders’ office, writes that when he volunteered to represent inmates at Guantánamo Bay he didn’t know if his clients "would be terrorists or innocents." At least one, Adel Hamad, a Sudanese aid worker, seems patently innocent, and Wax also represented Brandon Mayfield, a lawyer whose story—he was falsely linked to a bombing through shoddy fingerprint evidence—illustrates the short path from depriving terrorists of their rights to depriving everyone else. In an enthralling, enraging narrative, Wax captures the damage that Guantánamo has done to America’s reputation abroad, and shows how the legal fights on behalf of detainees might restore it. When Hamad, who helped run a hospital for refugees and was known for his Ping-Pong skills, disappeared, his wife was left destitute, and their infant daughter died from a lack of medical care. Hamad spent nearly five years at Guantánamo.

Portia Project Forum and Debate

On Tuesday, October 14, at 7:00 p.m., The Portia Project and the ACS hosted a public forum featuring Max Williams, the Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC), in Room 175 of the University of Oregon Knight Law Center.

Mr. Williams is a magna cum laude graduate of Northwestern School of Law of Lewis & Clark College. Prior to his appointment to his present position, Mr. Williams practiced law at a leading Portland firm and completed a distinguished career as a member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. According to his official biography, Mr. Williams' "interest in corrections grew through his legislative responsibilities, where he became very familiar with the policy issues facing the agency and the larger public safety issues facing the state." Mr. Williams' presentation on October 14 will describe the work of the DOC and focus on the impact that the passage of either of two competing ballot measures, Measure 57 or Measure 61, would have on Oregon's prison population and the State's budget.

The debate and forum was non-partisan and examined all angles of the topic.

The "Imperial Presidency?" Citizens and the Growth of Executive Power

This event highlighted the growth of executive power, specifically the apparent shift in power to the executive branch and the unprecedented level of executive secrecy.

We proudly hosted, with the Morse Center for Law and Politics as well as several other supporting groups.

Marjorie Cohn is President of the National Lawyers Guild.

Shane Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights is the lead attorney for Guantanamo detainees.

Jordan Paust is the author of a recent book on the Bush administration and its war on terror.

The event was well-attended by community members, law students, graduate students from across the campus, and faculty members. Ms. Cohn, Mr. Kadidal, and Mr. Paust were gracious enough to entertain the attendees after the event for a reception along with a book-signing.

From Yale to Guantanamo

Shane Kadidal gave a fabulous lunch presentation to aspiring law students on November 14, 2008. The Morse Fellows, ACS, and a small gathering of interdisciplinary students and faculty members attended this lunchtime talk with Shane Kadidal on November 14th. Shane's talk is titled: "From Yale to Guantánamo." This was a great chance to hear about Shane's experience defending Guantánamo victims, as well as his other work with the Center for Constitutional Rights. A vegan lunch was also provided.

About Shane Kadidal: Shane Kadidal is senior managing attorney of the Guantánamo project at the Center for Constitutional Rights. In addition to supervising the Guantánamo litigation, he also works on the Center's case against the NSA's warrantless surveillance program, CCR v. Bush, and its challenge to the "material support" statute, HLP v. Mukasey. He also represented hundreds of individuals being fined by the government for traveling to Cuba, and worked with the Vulcan Society of Black firefighters challenging discriminatory hiring policies of the New York City Fire Department.

Panel on Terrorism Enhancement Sentencing Guidelines

Please join us for a dynamic and lively panel on January 22nd at the University of Oregon School of Law. Lauren Regan and Amanda Lee will address the new terrorism enhancement sentencing guidelines, how the enhanced sentencing has been applied to criminal acts of property destruction, the impacts of categorizing such acts as terrorism on our 1st Amendment rights, and the political climate that has led us down this path.

The National Lawyers Guild (Oregon student chapter) and the University of Oregon student ACS chapter are co-sponsoring this exciting and dynamic panel presentation that will look into the effects that terrorism enhancement sentencing will have on our society.

Keith Boykin Speaks on Race, Sexual Orientation, and Religion

Keith Boykin recently spoke at the University of Oregon on race, religion, and sexuality. In the early 1990s, Boykin served in the Clinton administration as the highest-ranking openly gay White House aide. Boykin is considered to be one of the country's leading experts on the intersection of race and sexual orientation.

At the University of Oregon, he compared and contrasted the fight for civil rights for the lesbian and gay community with the fight for civil rights for racial minorities. He criticized prominent African Americans that have refused to equate the two, and made specific reference to a statement that Colin Powell made in during the early 1990s discussion of gays in the military. "Part of what troubled me is that what General Powell was doing in his statement, and what so many pastors do today, is creating a hierarchy of oppression," Boykin said.

Senator Ron Wyden on Civil Liberties, Secuirty, and the Balance of Power

October 30, 2006, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) spoke to University of Oregon law students on a number of contemporary issues including:
-civil liberties,
-security,
-Guantanamo detainees,
-Iraq war and its domestic effects,
-taxes,
-national energy policy
-and how all of these relate to the balance of power

Senator Wyden said he believed that the Bush Administration's handling of the Guatanamo detainees was poor. He also expressed his views on terrorism, and argued that the civil liberties intrusions after 9-11 were unwarranted and unnecessary. He felt that apprehending the 9-11 suspects before they were able to follow through could have been accomplished without such civil liberties infringements, because the conduct of some of the suspects had been sufficiently outrageous to raise red flags with the state security apparatus. Senator Wyden also discussed our discussed enery politics and advocated the uptake of alternative fuels such as biodiesel as part of the national energy policy. Overall, it was a very helpful and informative speech for all those who attended.

The Status of Reproductive Rights in Oregon

On October 19, 2006, the American Constitution Society co-sponsored "The status of reproductive rights in Oregon," panel - one of many panels in a 2-day series of reproductive rights panels with the Women's Law Forum and Law Students for Choice. Sara Ainsworth, Senior Legal and Legislative Counsel of the Northwest Women's Law Center discussed the status of reproductive rights in Oregon. Specifically, she provided context based on what has happened and is happening in other Pacific Northwest states and general national trends, especially after the passage of recent federal legislation prohibiting the transportation of minors across state lines to avoid parental consent laws. Sara Ainsworth has worked on various pro bono cases and pieces of legislation throughout the Pacific NW regarding reproductive issues. She is a lawyer who has written/presented on the constitutional rights of teenagers.

Second Founding: The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment

On October 12, 2006, UO law professor Garrett Epps inaugurated his tenure as Hollis Professor of Law with a public lecture that explained his theory that the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment marks a "Second Founding: The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment" of the American Republic after the failure of the Constitution of 1787.

His remarks drew on his recent book, Democracy Reborn: The Fourteenth Amendment and the Fight for Equal Rights in Post-Civil War America. "More than the Declaration of Independence, more than the original Constitution, more than even the Bill of Rights, it is the 14th Amendment that makes America a democratic country," Epps said. The speech was followed by a reception and booksigning in the Wayne Morse Commons.

Garrett Epps, a former staff writer for the Washington Post, is the author of two novels and a number of articles and books on constitutional law. He is the Orlando and Marian Hollis Professor of Law at the University of Oregon.

Click here to see the lecture.
Second Founding: The Story of the Fourteenth Amendment speech

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