A recent ACS report, Skewed Justice, found that the current explosion in spending on television attack ads in state supreme court elections has made courts less likely to rule in favor of defendants in criminal appeals. This influx of money to judicial elections - due in large part the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United - means that judges are under increasing pressure to act like politicians by avoiding damaging attack ads and burnishing their "tough on crime" bona fides at the expense of real people facing criminal prosecution. Coupled with structural inequities that critics claim make it difficult for defendants to obtain real justice, does money in judicial elections threaten the legitimacy of our criminal justice system? What doe the experiences of judges teach us about how to maintain an independent judiciary in the face of these pressures? What role can those who represent the criminally accused play in protecting a criminal defendant's due process rights to an impartial judge?
Speakers:
- Erica Hashimoto, Allen Post Professor of Law and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Professor, University of Georgia School of Law
- Hon. Sue Bell Cobb, Former Chief Justice, Alabama Supreme Court
- Tracey George, Professor of Law and Political Science, Vanderbilt University
- David Kopel, Research Director, Independence Institute; Associate Policy Analyst, Cato Institute; Adjunct Professor, University of Denver Sturm College of Law
- Nkechi Taifa, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Foundations
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
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
On June 11, former Attorney General Eric Holder gave a keynote address at the 2015 ACS National Convention.
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.
