Community and Curry on Trans Day of Visibility

Celebrate Trans Day of Visibility and the LGBTQ+ community with Indian food, games, socializing, and education. We will be playing jeopardy with LGBTQ+ trivia to build community and learn about queer history.

ACS South Carolina: Lawyer Chapter Interest Meeting

Join South Carolina Lawyers seeking to launch a SC Lawyer Chapter for an interest meeting on Zoom. All are welcome! See below for excerpts from the invitation from Elliotte Quinn, attorney at Steinberg Law Firm, to join this movement.

Dear Fellow South Carolina Lawyer,

Seemingly every day I read news of events that I never contemplated occurring in our American democracy. I of course knew that there was a far right that advocated for wildly different policies than the progressive policies I prefer, but I always naively assumed that democracy and the rule of law were fundamental principles that we all agree on and respect. […].

While indisputable that numerous problems caused the dumpster fire that is America in 2026, one significant cause has been the steady drift of the federal judiciary towards an activist conservative jurisprudence that privileges conservative political positions, corporations, and the executive branch at the expense of ordinary citizens and constitutional rights. The judiciary should serve as a check on the excesses of the executive branch, ensuring the executive complies with the rule of law. Instead, by favoring unitary executive theories and conceding increasing power to the executive branch, the federal judiciary laid the groundwork for Trump, his excesses, and his disregard for the rule of law.

To give credit where due, conservatives were brilliant strategists in establishing and aggressively promoting the Federalist Society in the early 1980s. The Federalist Society not only advanced a legal theory for conservatives to organize behind, it also became conservative politicians’ de facto authority on vetting judicial nominees. For decades, progressives have not adequately responded to conservatives’ politicization and weaponization of the judiciary through the Federalist Society.

In 2001, progressives created The American Constitution Society (“ACS”) as the progressive counterweight to the Federalist Society. While still not as well-known, well-funded, or influential as the Federalist Society or as it should be, ACS is an incredibly worthwhile and powerful organization. From 2020 to 2025, former Senator Russ Feingold was ACS’s President. In 2026, Phil Brest took over as ACS’s President, having last served as President Biden’s White Senior Counsel in charge of judicial nominations. Former board members include Attorney General Eric Holder and California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu. In 2024, ACS had an annual budget of nearly five million dollars. Today, twenty-five years after the creation of ACS, we still do not have a lawyer chapter in South Carolina. We also do not have a student chapter at Charleston School of Law and the student chapter at USC Law School appears to be defunct or minimally active. I am writing to ask for your help changing that. It is time for progressive South Carolina lawyers to quit ceding the field and stand up for the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Will you please become a member of ACS and join me in founding a lawyer chapter in South Carolina?

For more information on what a South Carolina Lawyer Chapter would do, and for Zoom access information, please register here.

WashU Law: The National Trans Bar Association

ACS will host a discussion with a representative from the National Trans Bar Association focused on current legal issues affecting transgender communities and the evolving landscape of trans civil rights litigation.

The conversation will explore recent and ongoing civil rights cases, highlighting both broad doctrinal trends and the specific challenges involved in successfully litigating these claims. The speaker will also share reflections on practicing law as a trans attorney and discuss concrete ways law students and legal professionals can foster respect, inclusion, and meaningful support within the legal community.

Pursuing Power Without Process: Understanding the Rise of the Supreme Court's Shadow Docket with Professor Steve Vladeck

The Supreme Court has increasingly relied on the fast-tracked shadow docket—also referred to as the emergency docket or interim docket—to issue emergency decisions. Decisions issued from the shadow docket bypass the extensive briefing and oral arguments of the merits docket. The Court's orders are normally short and do not contain an explanation of the justice’s reasoning, yet the Court has been using the shadow docket to decide consequential issues, including immigration enforcement, funding and appropriations, federal workforce protection, transgender rights, redistricting, and executive power.

In its first few months in power, the second Trump administration has made as many applications to the Court's shadow docket as the Biden administration made over its entire 4 years. In comparison, the Obama and Bush administrations combined made only 8 requests over 16 years. 

Since January 20, 2025, the Court has issued 25 decisions on its shadow docket concerning actions by the second Trump administration. Of the 25 decisions, the Court has issued 20 decisions finding, at least partially, for the Trump Administration and 5 decisions against the Trump administration. 7 of these decisions were not accompanied by any written explanation whatsoever. 

The Court’s increased reliance on the shadow docket has led to increased confusion among the public and the lower federal courts. These emergency orders had previously not been considered valid precedent, but recent rulings have gone so far as to implicitly overrule longstanding precedent. The Court has explicitly called out district court judges, accusing them of failing to apply previous shadow docket orders in their decisions. 

Join Georgetown University Law Center Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts and New York Times-bestselling author of "The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic" Stephen I. Vladeck for a discussion on the rise of the Court's shadow docket and the implications of this practice on our fundamental rights.

RSVP here: https://american.campuslabs.com/engage/event/12307694

Join virtually here: https://bit.ly/4rOjeJw