Civil Rights

Hours before the first presidential debate Tuesday, a different kind of discussion took place at Boston’s historic Faneuil Hall. Dubbed the debate before the debate, the Faneuil Forum drew hundreds of people to take part in a lively civic dialogue led by prominent Harvard Professor Michael Sandel on the future of democracy.

Robert L. Wilkins '89, a U.S. circuit court judge, discussed his recent book, “Long Road to Hard Truth,” which focused on his efforts to build the National Museum of African American History & Culture on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. He discussed his book during a talk at Harvard Law School on Sept. 19.

New exhibit documents the shield’s ties to the family of Isaac Royall, Jr., the 18th century slaveholder whose bequest established the first professorship of law at Harvard in 1815, through its removal in the spring of 2016.

Family, friends, and colleagues of the late Harvard Law School Clinical Professor David Grossman gathered at HLS to celebrate his life, honor his community activism, and support his fight for social justice.

With the U.S. presidential election weeks away, Harvard Law Today offers a look back at what scholars from campus and beyond had to say in recent months about democracy's challenges in a series of talks on Election Law.

In commemoration of the 15th anniversary of 9/11, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow asked faculty, alumni and staff to share brief personal reflections about that day and the post-9/11 world in which we live.

It took Pedro Spivakovsky-Gonzalez several years and nearly 10,000 miles, on a journey that included several cities around the world, to find his calling in his hometown.

The American Bar Association has announced that Martha Minow, Morgan and Helen Chu Dean and Professor of Law, will serve on the advisory council for its newly formed Center for Innovation in Chicago.

Addressing the incoming class at Harvard Law School, U.S. Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland ’77 recalled how, as a federal prosecutor, he helped convict the Oklahoma City bombers and the Unabomber, and also shared some not-so-famous details about his life: his addiction to his iPad, his passion for volunteerism, and his adoration of J.K. Rowling.

Accepting the Daniel P.S. Paul Constitutional Law chair, Tomiko Brown-Nagin delivered a lecture titled, "On Being First: Judge Constance Baker Motley and Social Activism in the American Century," which focused on 20th century social reform through the life of the civil rights advocate who became the first female African American federal judge in 1966.

Food recovery entrepreneurs, farmers, business persons, academics, government officials and many others converged at Harvard Law School for two days of learning, strategizing, and networking to address the growing issue of food waste.

HLS Professors Tomiko Brown-Nagin and Jonathan Zittrain ’95 have been elected members of the American Law Institute--the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize, and improve the law.

Charles Ogletree '78, the Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School, recently announced that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He said he will work to raise awareness of the disease and its disproportionate effect on African Americans.

More than 125,000 veterans who have served since 9/11 are denied access to basic services like health care by the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to a report by the Veterans Legal Clinic at the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School.

In a Q&A with the Harvard Gazette, Professor Ron Sullivan discusses the shooting deaths last week of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota at the hands of police, and the subsequent killing of five Dallas officers by a retaliating sniper, events that shocked the nation and left many feeling like the country is unraveling.

Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow was honored by the Sargent Shriver Center on Poverty Law with the Equal Justice Award. She and John Levi ’72 LL.M. ’73 were recognized for their significant contributions to the movement for equal justice for low-income individuals.

Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Policy Program has received a generous grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation to support the program’s work to advance reform of unfair policies that allow for imposing fees and fines in the criminal justice system.

Early in the spring, first-year Harvard Law School students Chloe Goodwin, Nora Ellingsen, and Josh Looney jumped at the opportunity to volunteer with a national organization to help felons get a second shot at life: Clemency Project 2014, a coalition that supports petitions by nonviolent drug offenders for executive clemency.

The Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program has received a generous grant from the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation to launch the Syrian Refugee Resettlement Project.

This year, as they prepared to graduate, five members of the Class of 2016 took time to reflect on their interests and share experiences they will take from their time at Harvard Law.

Catherine Howard '16 is the winner of the inaugural David A. Grossman Exemplary Clinical Student Award, named in honor of the late professor and public interest lawyer who was dedicated to providing high-quality legal services to low-income communities.