Nora Gay Interview

ACS interviews Nora Gay, president of the ACS Texas School of Law Student Chapter, at the 2015 ACS National Convention.

Drawing Lines: The Limits to a State's Redistricting Powers

For the past 50 years, the Supreme Court has repeatedly struggled with whether and how to place limits on states' redrawing of their legislative and congressional districts, establishing the "one-person-one-vote" standard and limiting racial gerrymandering, but declining to set standards for partisan gerrymandering. This term, the Court heard two of the most recent disputes regarding redistricting, including a racial gerrymandering claim in Alabama Legislative Black Caucus v. Alabama, and a challenge to a ballot initiative that delegated the redistricting process to an independent commission in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. In an era of extreme partisan gerrymandering and political polarization, are there new legal strategies and political initiatives to make legislatures and congressional districts more representative and accountable? How will those strategies and initiatives fare under existing redistricting jurisprudence? 
 
Speakers: 
  • Hon. Lynn Adelman, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin
  • Anita Earls, Executive Director, Southern Coalition for Social Justice
  • George W. Hicks, Jr., Partner, Bancroft PLLC
  • State Senator Jamie Raskin, Professor of Law, Director of the Law and Government Program, American University Washington College of Law; Majority Whip, Maryland State Senate; Senior Fellow, People for the American Way
  • Franita Tolson, Betty T. Ferguson Professor of Voting Rights, Florida State University College of Law

The Digital Age on the Global Stage: Can the Law Keep Up?

The rapid development of technological innovation continually raises challenging questions for our legal system and policymakers as they seek to regulate actors and actions at the international level.Increasingly, the United States and our allies are at odds, imposing different legal standards across the Internet. What laws and treaties can effectuate law enforcement goals while maintaining various nations' civil liberties regimes in an age of transnational crime and terrorism? What standards should be met for U.S. law enforcement to access information stored in extraterritorial data centers? How can divergent free speech principles in Europe and the U..S. be successfully navigated with regard to hate speech on the Internet? Can European protection of the "right to privacy" and the "right to be forgotten" comport with American standards of free speech? 
 
Speakers:
  • Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO, National Constitution Center
  • Anupam Chander, Director, California International Law Center; Professor of Law, University of California, Davis
  • Mieke Eoyang, Director, National Security Program, Third Way
  • Orin Kerr, Fred C. Stevenson ,Research Professor of Law, The George Washington University Law School
  • Greg Nojeim, Director, Freedom, Security and Technology Project, Center for Democracy and Technology
  • Kate Westmoreland, Non-Residential Fellow, Stanford Center for Internet and Society 

2015 National Convention Opening Gala

On June 11, the American Constitution Society hosted the first day of its 2015 National Convention. ACS President Caroline Fredrickson provided a welcome address, and Zachary Norris of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights accepted the David Carliner Award.

Town Hall: Was Citizens United Wrongly Decided?

At a May 2015 event, The National Constitution Center hosted a debate in Boston on the controversial Citizens United decision featuring election and constitutional law experts Anthony Johnstone and John McGinnis. 

Introduction: 

Alistair Reader, Co-President, ACS Boston Lawyer Chapter

Featuring: 

Jeffrey Rosen, President & CEO, National Constitution Center
Lee Otis, Senior Vice President and Faculty Division Director, Federalist Society
Anthony Johnstone, Associate Professor, University of Montana School of Law
John McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University School of Law