The "de-platforming" of former President Donald Trump from prominent social media platforms following the January 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol raises questions about the power of private corporations to regulate public conversation, and the legal system's power to regulate them, in our wired age. Join the ACS Arizona, Austin, DC, Michigan, Orange County, and Philadelphia Lawyer Chapters as we welcome a panel of prominent experts to discuss the broader implications for free speech.

Featuring:

Katie Fallow, Senior Staff Attorney, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University

Gautam Hans, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School

Colin Stretch, Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School, and former General Counsel of Facebook, Inc.

Laurence H. Tribe, Carl M. Loeb University Professor, Emeritus, Harvard Law School

Eugene Volokh, Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law

Moderated by:

Dan Kaplan, Assistant Federal Public Defender; Member, ACS Phoenix Chapter Board of Directors

Voting rights are under full assault across the country. In response to unprecedented turnout and post-election turmoil, state legislatures from Georgia to Utah to Iowa have moved quickly to enact laws restricting access to the ballot box, with Texas, Florida, and several other states following right behind. At the same time, the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act continue to make their way through Congress as progressives hope to bring sweeping election reforms to repair some of the damage being done at the state level. How would these federal pieces of legislation interact with the recent spate of suppressive state laws? Are we moving to an American society where one's ability to vote is fully dependent on geography? Given the recent conservative shift of the federal courts, what is the best path forward in protecting voting rights?

Opening Remarks:

Lindsay Langholz, Director of Policy and Program, American Constitution Society

Featuring:

Garrett Epps, Legal Affairs Editor, Washington Monthly, Moderator

Atiba Ellis, Professor of Law, Marquette University Law School

Edgar Saldivar, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU of Texas

Nick Warren, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Florida Poy Winichakul, Staff Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center

Joined by the insight that the "the economy" cannot be separated from questions of power, distribution, and democracy, a growing group of legal scholars has begun to center questions of law and political economy ("LPE") as part of a critical transformation in legal thought. LPE frameworks highlight law's role in the perpetuation of racial and gender injustice, the devaluation of social and ecological reproduction, and the violence of the carceral state under capitalism. The LPE approach also explores concrete legal reforms designed to move beyond neoliberalism and toward a genuinely responsive, egalitarian democracy, with critical attention to the need for power and movement-building as part of any such transformation. ACS is pleased to partner with the LPE Project in hosting an online course introducing students to LPE analysis. Join us for the second of two conversations:

Featured Speaker:

Lev Menand, Academic Fellow, Lecturer in Law, and Postdoctoral Research Scholar, Columbia Law School

With Commentary From:

Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law, Yale Law School

Ganesh Sitaraman, Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School

 

Joined by the insight that the "the economy" cannot be separated from questions of power, distribution, and democracy, a growing group of legal scholars has begun to center questions of law and political economy ("LPE") as part of a critical transformation in legal thought. LPE frameworks highlight law's role in the perpetuation of racial and gender injustice, the devaluation of social and ecological reproduction, and the violence of the carceral state under capitalism. The LPE approach also explores concrete legal reforms designed to move beyond neoliberalism and toward a genuinely responsive, egalitarian democracy, with critical attention to the need for power and movement-building as part of any such transformation. ACS is pleased to partner with the LPE Project in hosting an online course introducing students to LPE analysis. Join us for the first of two conversations:

Opening Remarks:

Russ Feingold, ACS President

Featured Speaker:

Sanjukta Paul, Assistant Professor of Law, Romano Stancroff Research Scholar, Wayne State University School of Law

With Commentary From:

Amy Kapczynski, Professor of Law, Yale Law School

The debate over whether and how to restructure both the Supreme Court and the lower federal courts has intensified in the past year, particularly after Amy Coney Barrett's Senate confirmation took place just one week before the 2020 presidential election. For some in the progressive community, the Biden administration's formation of a commission to study the issue is not a sufficiently urgent response. A legislative response is forthcoming in the House of Representatives, where bills to add seats to the Supreme Court and set term limits for the Justices will be introduced, and pressure is ratcheting up from the grassroots, but court reform will still be a difficult issue to advance in the U.S. Senate. How can progressives move this agenda forward in the current political climate?

Opening Remarks:

Russ Feingold, ACS President

Featuring:

Jennifer Bendery, Senior Politics Reporter, HuffPost, Moderator

Hon. Mondaire Jones, 17th Congressional District of New York

Chris Kang, Chief Counsel, Demand Justice

Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Nancy Zirkin, Strategic Consultant; Former Executive Vice President of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights