COVID-19 Resources
Commentary, analysis, and other resources from ACS and our network.
Message from ACS
In these troubling times, public health is the main concern. But other threats loom: to the rule of law, to civil liberties, and to our nation’s founding values. ACS is working to educate Americans about these threats and provide important information on them from our vast network of experts and scholars. A list of helpful resources can be found below. Please check back often as this page will be updated frequently.
Meantime, I hope you and your families stay safe and healthy during this crisis.
—ACS President Russ Feingold
COVID-19 Virtual Events
ACS has been hosting a series of briefing calls about COVID-19.
Listen to Previous Calls in the COVID-19 Series
- Corporate Conduct in the COVID-19 Crisis, featuring Rebecca Dixon, Heidi Li Feldman, and Deepak Gupta. (May 19)
- Federalism: Friend or Foe? Federal & State Authority to Fight COVID-19, featuring Aziz Huq and Miriam Seifter. (May 13)
- Unequal Protection: The Disparate Impact of COVID-19 on Communities of Color, featuring Michele Goodwin,
Erwin Chemerinsky, and Dr. George Woods. (May 4) - Immigrants & COVID-19: Adding Pandemic to a System Already in Crisis featuring Hon. Ashley Tabaddor, Ahilan Arulanantham, and Jacinta Ma. (April 21)
- Pandemic at the Courthouse Doors featuring Hon. Shira Scheindlin, Elaine Poon, and Jonathan Smith. (April 7)
- Technology and Privacy During a Pandemic: Should Government Surveillance Be Used to Stop the Spread of COVID-19, featuring Professor Jennifer Daskal and Greg Nojeim. (April 1)
- Immunizing Workers During a Pandemic, featuring Professor Charlotte Garden and Satoshi Yanai (Recorded March 27)
- COVID-19 and the 2020 Elections, featuring Hannah Fried, Elizabeth Howard, and Daniel Tokaji (March 20)
- Contained? Government Authority During a Health Crisis, featuring Professor Michele Goodwin and Professor Steve Vladeck (March 6)
ACS Virtual Student Convention
- Video Webinar: Innovations in Local Leadership, featuring Hon. Chokwe Antar Lumumba, and Hon. Sumbul Siddiqui featuring extensive discussion of local municipal responses to COVID-19. (April 9)
ACS Blogs
By Maurice Emsellem, Director of the Fair Chance Program, National Employment Law Project (NELP)
State Preemption and Local Responses in the Pandemic (June 22)
By Nestor M. Davidson, Albert A. Walsh Chair in Real Estate, Land Use, and Property Law; Faculty Director, Urban Law Center, Fordham University School of Law and Kim Haddow, Director, Local Solutions Support Center
The Federal Government Fiddles As Covid-19 Ravages Native Americans (June 3)
Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, represents Massachusetts in the Senate. Deb Haaland, a Democrat, represents New Mexico’s 1st District in the House.
Face-Covering Requirements and the Constitution (June 1)
By Polly J. Price, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law; Patrick C. Diaz, J.D. candidate, Emory University School of Law
Can President Trump Can Defund the WHO? (June 1)
By Zachary Price, Professor of Law, University of California Hastings College of Law
Unfair Choices: Can Workers Refuse to Return If Their Workplaces Are Unsafe? (May 20)
By Matthew Bodie, Professor and Co-Director, Wefel Center for Employment Law, Saint Louis University School of Law
2020 Vision: What Can a Governor Do When the 2nd COVID-19 Surge Comes? (May 19)
By Jeff Thaler,Visiting Associate Professor, University of Maine School of Law
Governor, Legislature and COVID-19: The Case of Louisiana (May 13)
By John Devlin, William Hawk Daniels Professor of Law and Robert & Pamela Martin Professor of Law, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University ; ACS Faculty Advisor
We Need to Provide Resources for COVID-19 Victims, Not Tort Immunity for Businesses (May 11)
By Heidi Li Feldman, Professor of Law and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University Law Center
By Lindsay F. Wiley, Professor of Law and Director of the Health Law and Policy Program at American University Washington College of Law
The National Defense of Hamburgers (May 5)
By Kathryn E. Kovacs, Professor of Law, Rutgers University Law School
Trump’s EPA Uses the Coronavirus Crisis to Mask Environmental Deregulation and Suspend Enforcement (April 7)
By Joel A. Mintz, Professor of Law Emeritus and the C. William Trout Senior Fellow at Nova Southeastern University College of Law, and a member of the board of directors at the Center for Progressive Reform.
Forced Closing of Houses of Worship During the Coronavirus: Both Legal and Right (April 4)
By Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair Professor of Government, University of Texas Law School and Eric J. Segall, Kathy and Lawrence Ashe Professor of Law, Georgia State University College of Law
Three Questions about the Second Amendment and the Temporary Closure of Gun Stores (April 3)
By Joseph Blocher, Lanty L. Smith ’67 Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law
How State Attorneys General are Protecting Workers During the Coronavirus Pandemic (April 3)
By Terri Gerstein, Director of the State and Local Enforcement Project, Harvard Labor and Worklife Program. Senior Fellow, Economic Policy Institute
A COVID-19 Signing Statement from the Unaccountable President (March 31)
By Peter Shane, Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Member, ACS Board of Directors and ACS Board of Academic Advisors
When a Public Health Crisis Becomes a Threat to the Rule of Law (March 30)
By Russ Feingold, ACS President
A Pandemic Is No Time for Secrecy (March 27)
By Christine Monahan Counsel, American Oversight; Khahilia Shaw Counsel, American Oversight; and Amanda Teuscher Web Editor, American Oversight
Trump Cannot Command States to Stand Down on COVID-19 (March 25)
By Peter Shane, Jacob E. Davis and Jacob E. Davis II Chair in Law, The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law. Member, ACS Board of Directors and ACS Board of Academic Advisors.
When Defense Production Act Delegation Fails (March 23)
By Deborah Pearlstein, Professor of Law and Co-Director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, Yeshiva University Benjamin Cardozo School of Law.
Protecting Civil Liberties During a Public Health Crisis (March 19)
By Matthew Guariglia, Policy Analyst, and Adam Schwartz, Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
State Attorneys General Take Action During COVID-19 Outbreak (March 18)
By Valerie M Nannery, ACS Director of Network Advancement
From the ACS Network
Trump Says He Can Adjourn Congress. He’s Misreading the Constitution, by Steve Vladeck, The Washington Post. Vladeck is the A. Dalton Cross Professor in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and a member of the ACS Board of Academic Advisors.
A War Production Board for Coronavirus Testing, by Julius Krein, Ganesh Sitaraman, and E. Glen Weyl, The Boston Globe. Sitaraman is a member of the ACS Board of Directors.
Trump Has Emergency Powers We Aren’t Allowed to Know About, by Elizabeth Goitein and Andrew Boyle, The New York Times. Boyle is an ACS Next Generation Leader.
COVID-19 Reinforces the Argument for “Regular” Judicial Review—Not Suspension of Civil Liberties—In Times of Crisis, by Lindsay F. Wiley and Steve Vladeck, Harvard Law Review Blog. Vladeck is the A. Dalton Cross Professor in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and a member of the ACS Board of Academic Advisors.
Obama’s Ebola Czar, Ron Klain, on How Trump Has Bungled the Coronavirus Response, interview with Ron Klain, New York Magazine. Klain is Executive Vice President and General Counsel at Revolution and a member of the ACS Board of Advisors.
The Ms. Q&A: Alejandra Y. Castillo on Combating Domestic Violence During the COVID-19 Epidemic, interview with Alejandra Castillo, Ms. Magazine. Alejandra Castillo is a member of the ACS Board of Directors.
Indy Explains: What unemployment insurance can- and can’t – do to ease coming wave of joblessness, quoting Ruben Garcia, The Nevada Independent. Ruben Garcia is an ACS Board of Directors member.
Unsanitized: Seven Lessons from the Great Recession, by Ganesh Sitaraman, The American Prospect. Ganesh Sitaraman is an ACS Board of Directors member.
Compassionate release now for prisoners vulnerable to the coronavirus, by Hon. Nancy Gertner, The Boston Globe. Hon. Nancy Gertner is an ACS Board of Advisors member.
“The virus is more patient than people are”: Obama’s Ebola czar on why the coronavirus is much worse, by Ezra Klein, Vox. Ron Klain is an ACS Board of Advisors member.
Trump Talks About Reopening America. Is It the Right Time? Interview with Ron Klain by NPR.
Trump’s coronavirus national emergency declaration, briefly explained by Li Zhou, Vox. Ciara Torres-Spelliscy is an ACS Faculty Advisor at Stetson University College of Law.
Yes, States and Local Governments Can Close Private Businesses and Restrict Your Movement by Elizabeth Joh, Politico Magazine. Elizabeth Joh is an ACS Faculty Advisor at UC Davis School of Law.
State Actions on COVID-19
State Actions on COVID-19 — This page is a special collection of resources that track state and local actions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of the ACS State Attorneys General Project which develops, collects, and disseminates legal resources highlighting and examining the authority and actions of state attorneys general in key policy areas.
From ACS Chapters
VIDEO: ACS New York: People Over Profits: Using Law and Policy to Ensure Coronavirus Vaccine Equity
VIDEO: Tools for Combating Disinformation and Promoting Media Literacy During the COVID-19 Pandemic
On March 26, 2020, the ACS New York Lawyer Chapter and PEN America’s Nora Benavidez discussed the prevalence of disinformation and false content about coronavirus and to learn tools to build better media literacy skills. This webinar discusses the ways false information is flooding our social media feeds and the difficulty we have in discerning veracity of information in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It also provides tips on how to develop healthy digital practices.
Past Events (recordings accessible on linked page):
- 4/28 ACS Wisconsin: Litigation Over Wisconsin’s Spring 2020 Election
- 4/30 Pandem-ocracy: Voting Rights and Access During the COVID Crisis
- 5/5 ACS Bay Area: Homelessness and COVID-19 – Martin v. Boise and Policy Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic