The American Constitution Society

Several members and officers of the Washington College of Law American Constitution Society chapter had the opportunity to attend the American Constitution Society’s national student convention at Duke University Law School in April 2017.

Eric Harrington of the Office of the General Counsel at the National Education Association joined us to discuss transgender student rights. We discussed Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., which SCOTUS had recently decided not to hear that term, among other cases regarding transgender student use of school bathrooms and their implications, as well as legal strategies being implemented.

This discussion with Constitutional Scholar Professor Kent Greenfield of Boston College Law School focused on the impact of Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States on decision outcomes and the composition of the Court. Prof. Greenfield attended Gorsuch’s first argument and discussed his impressions.

This conversation with John Dacey, Arizona attorney and founder of Abolish Private Prisons, focused on the constitutionality of private for-profit prisons and Abolish Private Prisons’ work in eliminating them.

This panel addressed the disparity between the composition of the courts and the people, as evidenced by the American Constitution Society’s Gavel Gap report, which can be found at http://gavelgap.org. The event featured Honorable Tanya Chutkan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and Honorable George Jarrod Hazel of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.

This panel discussion explored the dramatic changes that would take place in the U.S. Department of Justice and the federal judiciary under President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Speakers considered the expected curtailment in civil rights enforcement, the role of the Department of Justice in advising the administration on conflicts of interest and other important legal questions, the focus on highly conservative judicial nominations and many more critically important policy shifts.

This panel discussion focused on voting rights, how they are at stake, and the vitality of free and fair elections for the functioning of our democracy.