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

Join ACS for the second in a series of conversations about the various paths to legal academia, the bumps along the way to look out for, and what you can do to prepare yourself. Our focus for this discussion will be on clinical teaching and whether your skills and interests are a good fit for a clinical teaching position. Our panelists will describe the workload of a clinical professor and what you can do to become a competitive candidate for such a position. As diversity lags in the legal profession, there is an urgent need for law teachers from underrepresented communities. Even if you've never considered law teaching before, we encourage you to join us for this important conversation.

Welcome Remarks:
Kara Stein, ACS Vice President of Policy & Program

Featured Speakers:
Joel Dodge, Judicial Strategy Attorney, Center for Reproductive Rights; Lecturer in Law, Columbia Law School; Co-Chair, ACS New York Lawyer Chapter, Moderator

Alexi Freeman, Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Director of Social Justice Initiatives; Professor of the Practice of Law and ACS Faculty Advisor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law

Erica Hashimoto, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Clinics and Experiential Learning, Georgetown University Law Center

Sarah Shalf, Professor of Law and Director of Clinical Programs, University of Virginia School of Law; Steering Committee Chair, ACS Virginia Lawyer Chapter

Since its inception, the U.S. Constitution has implicitly and explicitly approved of the institution of slavery and the racial caste system it necessitated. That legacy has deeply influenced how our nation's criminal legal system has operated to control and abuse Black bodies—as well as the bodies of other People of Color—and destabilize their communities through over-criminalization, over-policing, and over-incarceration. Racism is so endemic in our criminal legal system that even laws that should protect Black communities, such as those aimed at white supremacist terror, hate crimes, and gun violence, ultimately end up disproportionately enforced against the people in those communities. Join ACS for a discussion that explores these issues and considers how restorative justice and other less traditional approaches might offer a path toward maintaining public safety without further empowering a criminal legal system tainted by a legacy of institutional racism.

Introductory Remarks:

Russ Feingold, President, American Constitution Society

Featuring:

I. Bennett Capers, Professor of Law and Director of Center on Race, Law & Justice, Fordham University Law School

Seema Gajwani, Special Counsel for Juvenile Justice Reform and Chief of the Restorative Justice Program Section, District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General

Taja-Nia Henderson, Dean, Rutgers University Graduate School-Newark

Vincent Warren, Executive Director, Center for Constitutional Rights

Jamiles Lartey, Staff Writer, The Marshall Project, Moderator

ACS hosted its first "Elevating and Engaging with Black Lives" program on June 30, focusing on the experiences of Black Lives on law school campuses, specifically, in response to the tragic killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd. The recording is available here. The feedback was overwhelming positive. We hosted a Part II of the series on August 12 to continue the discussion on the need for a better aligned curriculum that takes seriously how the law engages with Black lives across the spectrum of discourses, as well as the need for more professors of color at America's law schools. The recording is available here.

To continue to forge a different and better conversation about the role, place, and function of law in promoting equality and safeguarding constitutional rights, and to continue to center the experiences, perspectives, and stories of Black lives, ACS, alongside Professor Michele Goodwin, the National Black Law Students Association, and the National Bar Association, is hosting Part III of this program: Elevating and Engaging Black Judges. The program will focus on diversity in the judiciary and the need for more Black Judges. We also hope that this conversation inspires students and young lawyers to see themselves as future judges.

Speakers:

Hon. Bernice Donald, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Hon. Cenceria Edwards, Judge, Kings County Civil Court- 2nd District; Chair, National Bar Association's Judicial Council

Michele Goodwin, Chancellor's Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy, University of California, Irvine

Hon. George J. Hazel, Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

Hon. G. Helen Whitener, Justice, Washington State Supreme Court

With Remarks from:

Tricia "CK" Hoffler, CEO, The CK Hoffler Firm; President, National Bar Association

Zinelle October, Executive Vice President, American Constitution Society

 

Join ACS for a two-part conversation drawing from Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith's book After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency on what reforms are necessary to address the excesses of executive authority and absence of accountability that the Trump presidency exposed. The first session on March 16th will focus on the office of the presidency and what reforms are needed to protect it from a rogue president -- how to prevent foreign influence in our elections, financial entanglements, and ensure that statutes like the Insurrection Act and National Emergencies Act aren't misused.

Speakers:

Bob Bauer, Professor of Practice and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at NYU Law; former White House Counsel to President Obama

Jack Goldsmith, Learned Hand Professor of Law at Harvard Law School; former Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice

Jeh Johnson, Partner at Paul Weiss LLP; former Secretary of Homeland Security

Hina Shamsi, Director of the ACLU's National Security Project

Kim Atkins, Senior News Correspondent for WBUR, Moderator

 

Join ACS for a two-part conversation drawing from Bob Bauer and Jack Goldsmith's book After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency on what reforms are necessary to address the excesses of executive authority and absence of accountability that the Trump presidency exposed. The second session on March 23rd will focus on the Department of Justice (DOJ) and how to ensure that the Department can pursue the impartial administration of justice. Discussion will focus on how to investigate a president (or president-elect) who threatens our national security, DOJ independence, and reforms to how the DOJ and White House interact, including the respective roles of the Office of Legal Counsel and White House Counsel.