Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 60th Anniversary Symposium
April 17, 2026
8:30 am - 4:00 pm
Austin 111 West
On Friday, April 17, 2026, Harvard CR-CL will honor our founding members’ vision by hosting a 60th Anniversary Symposium. Our theme—Building Bridges or Borders? Community, Citizenship, and Civil Rights in an Age of Authoritarianism— responds to the state’s rapidly accelerating violations of the civil rights and civil liberties of non-citizens and U.S. citizens alike. Our speakers will explore these dimensions through the lens of immigration law enforcement. They hail from the ACLU State Supreme Court Initiative; the City Council of Saint Paul, Minnesota; the University of Minnesota Law School; Boston University School of Law; Boston College Law School; Harvard Law School; and Rutgers Law School.
This Symposium is dedicated to the memory of Professor Spencer H. Boyer, a co-founder of Harvard CR-CL, who passed away in November 2025.
RSVP for the symposium. Attendance is limited to the Harvard community and invited guests.
Location: This event will take place in person at Austin Hall, Room 111 West, from 9:30am to 4:00pm. Registration will occur from 8:30 to 9:30am.:
Tentative Schedule
9:30–10:00 AM — Breakfast & Opening Remarks & Keynote Address
Keynote Speaker: Cass Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School
10:10–11:10 AM — Panel #1: Adjudicating at the Edge: Courts, Citizenship, and the Boundaries of Reform
Featured Speakers:
- David Zimmer, Partner at Zimmer, Citron & Clarke and Lecturer at Harvard Law School
- Gerald Neuman, J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School
- Tiffany Lieu, Clinical Instructor at the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program
11:20–11:50 AM — Tribute to CR-CL Co-founder, Prof. Spencer H. Boyer
12:20–1:20 PM — Panel #2: Triage and Transformation: The Role of Advocacy in a Time of Crisis
Featured Speakers:
- Linus Chan, James H. Binger Clinical Professor of Law and the faculty director of the Detainee Rights Clinic at Minnesota Law
- Sarah R. Sherman-Stokes, Clinical Associate Professor of Law and Associate Director of the Immigrants’ Rights & Human Trafficking Clinic at Boston University School of Law
- Zohra Ahmed, Associate Professor at Boston University School of Law
1:30–2:30 PM — Panel #3: Executive Unleashed: The Trump Administration’s Assault on Immigration and Citizenship
Featured Speakers:
- Bijal Shah, Professor and Provost Faculty Fellow at Boston College Law School
- Daniel Kanstroom, Professor of Law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School
- Rose Cuison-Villazor, Professor of Law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers Law School
3:00–4:00 PM — Panel #4: Laboratories of Resistance: State Power, Local Resistance, and the Fracturing of Citizenship
Featured Speakers:
- Jon Hanson, Alan A. Stone Professor of Law and Director of the Systemic Justice Project at Harvard Law School
- Matthew Segal, Co-Director of the ACLU’s State Supreme Court Initiative
- Molly Coleman, Ward 4 Councilmember in St. Paul, Minnesota
This Symposium would not be possible without the support of Bloomberg Law, the Harvard Law School Human Rights Program, Lambda, the West Coast Club, the Plaintiffs Law Association, the Harvard Black Law Students Association, the Systemic Justice Project, and the Law and Social Change Program.
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If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at crcl@mail.law.harvard.edu. Attendance is limited to the Harvard community and invited guests.
If you or an event participant requires disability-related accommodations, please contact Student Support Services in the Dean of Students Office (WCC 3039) at studentsupport@law.harvard.edu or 617-495-1880.