As guaranteed by our founding documents, white, property owning men have always enjoyed the benefit of full citizenship and participation in American society, leaving their privilege and wealth to accrue interest over generations. While other groups slowly gained some measure of equal protection of our laws, inequality was already a fundamental characteristic of our society. Racial segregation in housing and schools, persistent to this day, was created by law and reenforced through redlining, the GI Bill, and countless other laws and practices. A persistent wage gap and widening racial wealth divide has pushed the "American Dream" even further away for communities of color. How did we get here? What tools are already available to address these issues? How has the Supreme Court's insistence on "colorblind" laws exacerbated these inequalities
Welcome Remarks: Kara Stein, Vice President of Policy & Program, ACS
Featured Speakers: Vinay Harpalani, Associate Professor of Law, University of New Mexico School of Law Norrinda Hayat, Associate Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Civil Justice Clinic, Rutgers Law School Laura Sullivan, Director of Economic Justice Program, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice Lindsay Langholz, Director of Policy & Program, American Constitution Society (Moderator)
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
Our Constitution's establishment of a racial caste system left a legacy that can be seen generations later in its impact on the health and well-being of communities of color. Exploitative scientific studies, inferior medical care, and discriminatorily designed infrastructure and environmental policy have wreaked havoc on the bodies of Black, Indigenous, and LatinX Americans. As we look to fight our latest urgent public health challenges, COVID-19 and climate change, what law and policy tools are available to address the disproportionate harms borne by communities of color? What new legal authorities are needed? And what can state and federal enforcement agencies do, more broadly, to help close the racial gap in our public health policy and to enhance environmental justice?
Opening Remarks: Russ Feingold, ACS President
Featuring: Sahar Fathi, Policy Director, Washington State Attorney General's Office Zinelle October, Executive Vice President, ACS, Moderator Chandra Taylor, Senior Attorney and Leader of the Environmental Justice Initiative, Southern Environmental Law Center Ruqaiijah Yearby, Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity, St. Louis University School of Law
This event has been approved for 1 hour of CA CLE credit.
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
