On June 25, the ACS Houston Lawyer Chapter, the ACS Austin Lawyer Chapter, and the ACS Dallas-Ft. Worth Lawyer Chapter hosted a discussion with voting rights experts Chad Dunn and Danielle Lang to discuss the fight to keep Texas voters safe from COVID-19. They talked about the status of the vote-by-mail litigation, as well as what voters should expect when voting in the upcoming July 14 runoff election.

Featuring: Chad Dunn, Co-Founder and Director of Litigation, UCLA Voting Rights Project; Partner, Brazil & Dunn Danielle Lang, Co-Director, Voting Rights and Redistricting, Campaign Legal Center

On June 30, 2020, ACS, Professor Michele Goodwin, and the National Black Law Students Association hosted a joint discussion to elevate the concerns of students and recent alumni to share their perspectives, stories, and experiences.

As our nation confronts racial inequality, we must forge a different and better conversation about the role, place, and function of law promoting equality and safeguarding constitutional rights. These conversations must get at the heart of the promise of liberty for each American and focus specifically on how it has been historically denied to Black Americans. The tragic killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd bring this conversation into stark relief and undeniable contemporary relevance. As many struggle to comprehend the horrific tragedies of their deaths, law students are looking for answers and expressing their concerns. Indeed, Black law students are leading the way on campuses across the country with discussions about 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 recounting the need for more professors of color at America's law schools.

Speakers:

Welcome: Zinelle October, Executive Vice President, American Constitution Society

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

Co-Moderator: Tezira Abe, University of Michigan Law School Alumnus and BLSA Member (2020)

Professor Guy-Uriel Charles, Edward and Ellen Schwarzman Professor of Law and co-director of the Duke Law Center on Law, Race and Politics; Duke Law School

Dean Danielle Holley-Walker, Professor of Law and Dean, Howard University School of Law

Professor Patricia Williams, University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities, Northeastern University; MacArthur Fellowship alumnus; author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights

The discussion also featured remarks from:

Rachel Barnes, Chair, National Black Law Students Association

Marquisa Wince, Vice Chair, National Black Law Students Association

On June 29, 2020, ACS hosted a conversation with two state attorneys general to discuss their authority to promote police accountability, actions they have taken to do so, and what they propose to do next.

After George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz's announcement that Attorney General Keith Ellison would take over the prosecution of the police officers involved brought new attention to the role of state attorneys general in police accountability and oversight. While their jurisdiction varies from state to state, state attorneys general use a variety of tools to address police accountability, and have advocated for additional ways to address police misconduct, promote transparency, and increase trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve.

Welcome:

Russ Feingold, President,

ACS Featured Speakers:

Hon. Gurbir S. Grewal, New Jersey Attorney General

Hon. Kwame Raoul, Illinois Attorney General

Valerie M. Nannery, Director of Network Advancement, ACS, Moderator

On June 19, 2020, the ACS Michigan, Austin, Chicago, Columbus, Houston, Los Angeles, Madison, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Northeast Ohio, Oregon, Puget Sound, Washington, DC, and Western New York Chapters hosted a timely discussion on policing and police reform with Professor Jelani Jefferson Exum, a leading expert in sentencing law, sentencing procedure, and the impact of race on criminal justice.

Jelani Jefferson Exum is the Philip J. McElroy Professor of Law and ACS Faculty Advisor, University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.

More from Professor Exum:

• Sentencing Disparities and the Dangerous Perpetuation of Racial Bias
• The Death Penalty on the Streets: What the Eighth Amendment Can Teach About Regulating Police Use of Force
• Purpose-Focused Sentencing: How Reforming Punishment Can Transform Policing

• The Death Penalty on the Street | TEDxToledo