Civil Rights

This year, Brianna Banks was named the 2022 winner of the William J. Stuntz Memorial Award for Justice, Human Dignity, and Compassion, which recognizes a graduating student who has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to the principles of justice, human dignity, and compassion while at Harvard Law School.

In a philosophical and wide-ranging Last Lecture, Harvard Law School Assistant Professor Nikolas Bowie ’14 reminded the Class of 2022 that they are on the verge of changing the world.

In the first of the series, “Cases in Brief,” Harvard Law Professor Dehlia Umunna discusses the infamous “Scottsboro Boys” case, Powell v. Alabama (1932), in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that defendants in capital cases have the right to adequate legal counsel.

The Hon. Loretta Lynch ’84, who was Attorney General of the United States from 2015 to 2017, will be this year’s speaker for the Class Day ceremonies at Harvard Law School.

Alexander Chen of Harvard Law’s LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic says Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill likely will face First Amendment and Equal Protection Clause challenges.

In a recent talk at Harvard Law School Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison reflected on the George Floyd murder trial of Derek Chauvin, and verdict.

Jeffery Robinson ’81 has made challenging false narratives about racism his life’s work.

Georgetown Law Professor Sheryll Cashin ’89 once asked her mentor, Thurgood Marshall, why he had passed over Constance Baker Motley to succeed him when he…

At an HLS talk, Byron Allen — owner of the most successful Black-owned media group in history — shared his career history and experiences with the law.

Alan A. Stone, the Touroff- Glueck Professor of Law and Psychiatry Emeritus in the faculty of law and the faculty of medicine at Harvard, died Jan. 23. He was 92.

Caste is alive and well in the United States — and it starts with the very neighborhoods we call home. That’s the uncomfortable truth Sheryll Cashin asks us to confront in her new book.

Randall Kennedy seeks nuance in an age of absolutism

For the past two years, students in Harvard’s Prison Legal Assistance Project have helped prisoners they say were targeted for retaliatory violence.

HLS Professor Andrew Crespo was one of 59 members elected to the American Law Institute this year. Thirteen Harvard Law School alumni were also elected.

In a case that could have national implications, the Harvard Law School Crimmigration Clinic recently convinced judges at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to discredit the use of controversial municipal gang databases in immigration proceedings.

In “Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality,” Harvard Law Professor Tomiko Brown-Nagin traces the tactics of the groundbreaking lawyer amid pivotal protests.

Harvard Law School election law expert Ruth Greenwood applauds the Biden administration’s support for new voting legislation, but says the filibuster remains an obstacle to finishing the job.

Lani Guinier, the first African-American woman to be tenured at Harvard Law School and an influential scholar who devoted her life to justice, equality, empowerment, and democracy, died Jan. 7.

Two Harvard Law School scholars explain why the Garland v. Gonzalez case could have broader implications for immigrants and advocates.

Harvard Law Today asked experts from across Harvard Law School to share their perspectives on January 6, 2021, the events that have unfolded since, and the implications for American democracy going forward.

Here are some of the latest from HLS authors to add to your reading list over the holiday break.

Future-L, a pilot collaboration between Harvard Law School and the National Education Equity Lab, introduces high-achieving high school students from historically underserved backgrounds to the legal field.

Oscars-style event back in person for its fifth year, celebrating student short films on tort law and justice.

To mark Veterans Day, Harvard Law Today highlights a few of the profiles and stories that illustrate the profound commitment of those in the HLS community to service and the law.

Members of the Veterans Legal Clinic at Harvard Law School are representing a same-sex widower in his appeal before the VA and in federal court in a potentially precedent-setting case.

As a U.S. Marine in Afghanistan, Nathan Lowry ’24 led a team of counterterrorism intelligence specialists targeting Taliban operations.

During a recent discussion about his new collection of essays, “Say it Loud! On Race, Law, History, and Culture,” Randall Kennedy shared background on a few of his favorite pieces, defended free thought, and spoke about his view on the future of race relations in America.

Professor Intisar Rabb, director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School, was appointed as a special adviser on Islamic Law to the new chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

September 2021 saw the publication of the inaugural issue of The American Journal of Law and Equality, a project developed by Professors Martha Minow, Randall Kennedy, and Cass Sunstein, in collaboration with MIT Press.

Harvard Law Professor Alan Jenkins discusses the U.S. Constitution and its treatment of race, how to guarantee fundamental rights, and why lawyers should be better communicators.

Michael Ashley Stein ’88, executive director of the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, says the Department of Education should go beyond the Americans with Disabilities Act in investigating state bans against mandating face coverings in schools.

Former legal adviser to the National Security Council during the Bush administration says 20 years after 9/11, he's frustrated there hasn't been more progress toward an international legal framework for dealing with terrorism.

A counterterrorism czar in the Bush administration, and the first-ever assistant secretary of the Treasury for terrorist financing and financial crimes, says the U.S. needs to reconceptualize what power means in the 21st century.

Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks, a former California congresswoman and ranking member of House Intelligence Committee reflects on events of that day and the calamities we still confront.

On the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Harvard Law Today asked five Harvard Law School alumni and a former adjunct professor, all of whom had prominent roles in counterterrorism and other national policies during and after 9/11, to share their reflections about the events of that day.

The former head of Homeland Security and co-author of the USA Patriot Act says the U.S. needs a strategy for dislodging terrorist groups.

A co-author of the 9/11 Commission report, who served on the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, says engaged citizenry united in its efforts will make this country safer.

Each year, half of HLS’ first-year J.D. students and around a quarter of LL.M. students participate in at least one of HLS' 11 Student Practice Organizations, with some involved in multiple organizations at once.

As special master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, or VCF, Rupa Bhattacharyya ’95 is working to ensure that fair compensation goes to the victims of the attacks.

With the start of the academic year, a look at nine faculty who have joined Harvard Law School, been promoted, or taken on new roles in 2021.

This academic year, 14 Wasserstein Public Interest Fellows have been named at Harvard Law School.

Harvard Law Lecturer on Law Alexander Chen '15, founding director of the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic at HLS, is working with students in the recently-formed Polyamory Legal Advocacy Coalition to offer legal protections for people in polyamorous relationships.

“Anna Lvovsky chronicles the policing of gay life in the mid-20th century.

Harvard Law Today recently reached out to Visiting Professor Rafael Cox Alomar ’04 to learn more about what is behind recent protests in Cuba, the Biden administration’s response, and whether there is likely to be a lasting impact.

Harvard Law Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos recently spoke with Harvard Law Today about the Supreme Court's recent decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, options for advocates moving forward, and the future of the Voting Rights Act.

Harvard Law School has appointed Joshua C. McDaniel to serve as a visiting assistant clinical professor and as the director of its Religious Freedom Clinic.

Andrew Manuel Crespo ’08 and Premal Dharia, leaders of the ambitious new Institute to End Mass Incarceration, take aim at ‘one of the defining civil rights issues of our time.’