Topics
Civil Rights
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The Ames Moot Court Competition: A look back
November 17, 2011
Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor of the U.S. Supreme Court presided over the oral argument in the final round of the 2011 Ames Moot Court Competition on Thursday, November 17th, 2011.The competition was held in the historic Ames Courtroom of Harvard Law School.
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Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree delivered the Nathan I. Huggins Lecture on November 15th, 16th, and 17th at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University. The lecture series, “Understanding Obama,” is divided into three parts: “From Barry to Barack,” “The Emergence of Race” and “The Conundrum of Race.”
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Post Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Next steps?
November 14, 2011
Harvard Law School Lambda, a student organization dedicated to serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, hosted a panel at the law school on Nov. 9 to discuss challenges posed to effectively ending discrimination against LGBT service-members in light of the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
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At HLS, Kathleen Morris makes the case for local constitutional law
October 18, 2011
In a lecture co-sponsored by the Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review and the Federalist Society, San Francisco City Attorney Kathleen Morris made the case for local constitutional law, which would overturn a century of Supreme Court precedent. She was joined by HLS Professors David Barron and Gerald Frug, and Stanford Law Professor Richard Ford.
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GLAD’s Bonauto assesses litigation of the Defense of Marriage Act
October 14, 2011
At “Challenging and Litigating DOMA's Constitutionality”— an event that was co-sponsored by the Harvard Law School American Constitution Society, Lambda, and the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Journal—Mary Bonauto, the Civil Rights Project Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), spoke about litigating the Defense of Marriage Act in federal courts in the wake of the Department of Justice's recent decision to stop defending the law.
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Constitution Day: At Howard, Minow reflects on diversity in education, constitutional law
October 7, 2011
On Sept. 19, Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow gave a lecture at Howard Law School in Washington, D.C., in commemoration of Constitution Day – an annual, national celebration of the signing of the U.S. Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.
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Derrick Bell (1930-2011)
October 6, 2011
Derrick Bell, a distinguished legal scholar, prolific writer and tireless champion for equality, died Wednesday, Oct. 5. Over the course of his five-decade career, he worked to expose the persistence of racism and challenged his students, readers and critics with his uncompromising candor and progressive views.
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From a slave-owning founder to the President of the United States: A look at a legacy of complexity and progress
September 30, 2011
Harvard Law School was founded with a bequest from Isaac Royall, a brutal slave owner. Two centuries later, the first black President of the U.S. and first black First Lady are HLS alumni.
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Leadership in the 21st Century is the focus of the 3rd Black Alumni reunion
September 30, 2011
Seven hundred alumni and guests gathered in Cambridge on September 16-18 to commemorate the 3rd Celebration of Black Alumni at Harvard Law School. With more black lawyers entering the profession than ever before—and more achieving positions of prominence and power, the event, “Struggle and Progress: Leadership in the 21st Century,” focused on the progress that has been made and the barriers that remain.
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From Courtroom to Classroom: Nancy Gertner Reflects
September 7, 2011
Brilliant trial attorney, unabashed feminist, passionate advocate for civil rights, and one of Boston’s most respected—and controversial—federal judges, U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner joins the HLS faculty this month as a Professor of Practice after retiring from 17 years on the bench. As renowned for her outspokenness as for her carefully considered decisions—explained in lengthy written opinions—Gertner will offer students an insider’s view of the criminal justice system, the challenges judges face today in a 24/7 news cycle, and more.
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Kennedy on PBS and BookTV: Obama and Racial Politics
September 7, 2011
Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy recently appeared on PBS’s Tavis Smiley show and CSPAN’s BookTV to discuss his latest book, “The Persistence of the Color Line: Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency” (Pantheon Books).
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Fried in Scotus Blog: ‘The constitutional arguments against the healthcare mandate are utterly without merit’
August 3, 2011
On August 1st, Scotus Blog published an op-ed by Beneficial Professor of Law Charles Fried on the constitutionality of the healthcare mandate. In the piece, Fried argues that the attack against President Obama’s Affordable Care Act is pure politics and ignores established legal principles.
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U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen G. Breyer ’64 discussed the foundations of American democracy with Tunisian scholars at a conference hosted by NGO Almadanya on July 22 in the Amphitéâtre César in Yasmine-Hammamet, Tunisia.
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Harvard Law School Professor Elizabeth Bartholet, faculty director of HLS’s Child Advocacy Program, has released two new reports challenging the long-held assumption that racial bias is responsible for the disproportionately high numbers of black children in foster care.
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Mack on the History News Network: Progressives are disenchanted with Obama—Abolitionists were disenchanted with Lincoln
July 12, 2011
In his July 10 op-ed for George Mason University’s History News Network, Harvard Law School Professor Kenneth W. Mack ’91 assesses the presidency of Barack Obama ’91, comparing it to that of Abraham Lincoln in terms of each president’s respective policy decisions.
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Historic Failure
July 1, 2011
Part of the American Presidents Series, this volume, excerpted below, examines the life and political career of Andrew Johnson, possibly the nation’s worst president, according to Gordon-Reed.
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A venerated Supreme Court practitioner makes it his mission to expand access to the lower courts
July 1, 2011
Professor Laurence Tribe ’66, who has been teaching at HLS for four decades, is back in Cambridge after nine months as the first head of the new Access to Justice Initiative at the Department of Justice, launched in March 2010 to improve access to justice for all, the middle class as well as the poor.
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Symposium explores legacy of the 19th century social reformer Wendell Phillips (video)
June 24, 2011
Abolitionist Wendell Phillips, who graduated from Harvard Law School in 1833, was a nationally know celebrity during his lifetime. On the bicentennial of his birth, a symposium held at HLS June 2-4, cosponsored by the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, focused on the life and legacy of the social reformer, and the questions they raise for those working for social justice today.
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HLS’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute releases new report on METCO’s positive track record
June 17, 2011
Harvard Law School’s Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) and the Pioneer Institute have jointly published the first comprehensive review in nearly a decade of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity (METCO), the nation’s second-longest running voluntary school desegregation program.
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Two HLS Students Receive Rappaport Fellowships
June 7, 2011
Two Harvard Law School students have been selected as Rappaport Fellows in Law and Public Policy and will spend the summer working with top local policymakers on issues that affect residents of Greater Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.