Currently, 95 colleges and universities are under federal investigation for alleged violations of Title IX based on the mishandling of sexual assault complaints on campus. Academic institutions have ramped up efforts to investigate sexual assaults, and the Obama Administration has announced a task force to tackle the issue and make campuses safer. Meanwhile, some have expressed concern that the due process rights of the accused are not always sufficiently protected. Can universities crack down on sexual violence without violating the due process rights of either the accused or the accusers? How can schools follow through on the promise of Title IX so that women can function as equals in the academic environment while maintaining fairness in the investigation and prosecution of the accused? What would a model policy for dealing with campus sexual assault look like?
Speakers:
- Ari Melber, Chief Legal Correspondent and Co-Host of "The Cycle," MSNBC
- Alexandra Brodsky, Founding Co-Director, Know Your IX; Editor, Feministing.com; Student, Yale Law School
- Seth Galanter, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Department of Education Office for Civil Rights
- Hon. Nancy Gertner, (Ret.) Senior Lecturer on Law, Harvard Law School
- Fatima Goss Graves, Vice-President, Education & Employment, National Women's Law Center
- Meredith Raimondo, Associate Professor and Title IX Coordinator, Oberlin College
On Saturday, June 13, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg discussed her career, celebrity status, and time on the Supreme Court with her former clerk and current California Associate Justice Goodwin Liu.
Stephen Bright, president and senior counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights, provides concluding remarks to the 2015 ACS National Convention.
The Great Recession of 2008 highlighted a decades-long trend of increased wealth stratification that some say echoes back to America's Gilded Age. The richest 3 percent of families now control more than half the nation's wealth, while the bottom 90 percent control less than a quarter. The Pew Research Center has found that 27 percent of Americans "say the growing gap between the rich and the poor is the greatest threat to the world today." Further, many charge that the Supreme Court has become a defender of business interests at the expense of the individual. What does the Constitution have to say about economic power and inequality and what role can courts play in this debate? How has the ongoing assault on unions impacted wealth distribution, and how can collective bargaining be strengthened? What other policies and legal means can help shore up the American dream of equal opportunity?
Speakers:
- Robert Borosage, Founder and President, Institute for America's Future
- David Bernstein, George Mason University Foundation Professor, George Mason University School of Law
- Heather Boushey, Executive Director and Chief Economist, Washington Center of Equitable Growth
- William Forbath, Associate Dean for Research, Lloyd M Bentsen Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law
- Sophia Lee, Professor of Law and History, University of Pennsylvania Law School
- Ted Shaw, Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law; Director, Center for Civil Rights, University of North Carolina School of Law
- Ganesh Sitaraman, Assistant Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress
A lawyer has a duty to zealously advocate on behalf of his or her clients, yet lawyers who represent unpopular clients can be lauded as champions of justice or unfairly vilified as accomplices to monsters. In our adversarial system, how can we guarantee justice for all if fear of reprisal chills attorney participation in controversial causes? In what contexts do criticisms of attorney representations arise, and are there an discernible patterns? What must be done to educate the bar and the public about the principles fundamental to our system of justice: all people and entities are entitled to representation, and such representations are not an endorsement of a client's view or conduct? How can controversial cases enrich a lawyer's practice and does it pose any risks?
Speakers:
- Ari Melber, Chief Legal Correspondent and Co-Host of "The Cycle" MSNBC
- Debo Adegbile, Partner, WilmerHale
- Pardiss Kebriaei, Senior Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights
- Burt Neuborne, Norman Dorsen Professor of Civil Liberties, New York University School of Law; Founding Legal Director, Brennan Center for Justice
ACS interviews Nora Gay, president of the ACS Texas School of Law Student Chapter, at the 2015 ACS National Convention.
