Congress and the Balance of Power

Race and the Constitution: The State of Equal Protection

This panel explores the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment and its great promise of equal protection of the laws at this juncture in American history. In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District, decided this Term, the Supreme Court invalidated the policies voluntarily adopted by the Seattle and Louisville school districts to integrate the schools in those communities. What are the practical effects of the decision and its broader ramifications? Both within the educational arena and beyond it, what viable race-conscious methods are available for achieving integration and racial justice in this country? What can be done to alleviate racial segregation in our schools and in our society? Following Parents Involved, what is the enduring legacy of Brown v. Board of Education?

• Judge Rosemary Barkett, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit  (Real Video / Windows Media)
  
• Melody Barnes, Executive Vice President for Policy, Center for American Progress  (Introduction: Real Video / Windows Media)
• Representative Artur Davis (D-AL)  (Part 1: Real Video / Windows Media)  (Part 2: Real Video / Windows Media)
• Goodwin Liu, Professor of Law, University of California, Berkely - Boalt Hall  (Real Video / Windows Media)
• Theodore M. Shaw, Director-Counsel and President, NAACP-LDF  (Real Video / Windows Media)
• John TrasviƱa, President & General Counsel, MALDEF  (Real Video / Windows Media)
• Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit  (Part 1: Real Video / Windows Media)  (Part 2: Real Video / Windows Media)

 Link to discussion: Real Video / Windows Media