Conferences and Symposia
Conferences and Symposia
The American Constitution Society regularly sponsors conferences and symposia on issues of public import. The papers emanating from these events are sometimes released as ACS Issue Briefs, which are archived here.
In keeping with ACS' mission, these Issue Briefs do not constitute an endorsement any single policy prescription. Rather, their purpose is to encourage debate among those who share ACS' commitment to the fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality and access to justice.
ACS Releases Papers from "The Religion Clauses in the 21st Century" Symposium held at the West Virginia College of Law
ACS and the West Virginia Law Review are pleased to release these papers written for “The Religion Clauses in the 21st Century” symposium held at the West Virginia University College of Law.
- "Introduction" by William P. Marshall, Vivian E. Hamilton, and John E. Taylor
- "Life After the Establishment Clause" by Steven G. Gey
- "Substantive Neutrality Revisited" by Douglas Laycock
- "Instruments of Accommodation: The Military Chaplaincy and the Constitution" by Ira C. Lupu and Robert W. Tuttle
- "Reconciling the Irreconcilable: Military Chaplains and the First Amendment" by Steven K. Green
- "Public School Students' Religious Speech and Viewpoint Discrimination" by Kirsti L. Bowman
- "Why Student Religious Speech is Speech" by John E. Taylor
- "Uncivil Religion: Judeo-Christianity and the Ten Commandments" by Frederick Mark Gedicks and Roger Hendrix
- "'Sectarianizing' Civil Religion? A Comment on Gedicks and Hendrix" by Steven D. Smith
- "The Establishment Clause and Religious Expression in Governmental Settings: Four Variables in Search of a Standard" by Daniel O. Conkle
- "Establishment Clause Limits on Free Exercise Accommodations" by Kent Greenawalt
- "When Accommodations for Religion Violate the Establishment Clause: Regularizing the Supreme Court's Analysis" by Carl H. Esbeck
- "Responsible Freedom Under the Religion Clauses: Exemptions, Legal Pluralism, and the Common Good" by Angela C. Carmella
- "Religious Exemptions and the Common Good: A Reply to Professor Carmella" by Laura S. Underkuffler
- "Deep Purple: Religious Shades of Family Law" by Naomi Cahn and June Carbone
- "Religious v. Secular Ideologies and Sex Education: A Response to Professors Cahn and Carbone" by Vivian E. Hamilton
- "Is Public Reason Counterproductive?" by Eduardo M. Penalver
ACS thanks the symposium organizers, its presenters and writers, the West Virginia University College of Law, and the dedicated editors and staff of the West Virginia Law Review.
Follow the link for a detailed description of the articles.
Symposium - The Roberts Court & Equal Protection: Gender, Race, and Class
The American Constitution Society sponsored the Class panel for the South Carolina Law Review's Symposium entitled "The Roberts Court and Equal Protection: Gender, Race, and Class" on February 29, 2008 at the University of South Carolina School of Law. The symposium addressed recent Supreme Court decisions regarding equal protection, including the school desegregation cases and the partial-birth abortion case, and possible areas for new litigation. The presenters focused on the Court’s constitutional philosophy regarding equal protection in the areas of gender, race, and class. The scholarship presented at the symposium will be published in the South Carolina Law Review's symposium issue in the summer of 2008.
Symposium: Keeping Faith with the Constitution in Changing Times
These articles are from the "Keeping Faith with the Constitution in Changing Times" symposium, co-sponsored by Constitutional Interpretation and Change Issue Group and Vanderbilt University Law School. The symposium was held at Vanderbilt University Law School in October 2006.
- Frank Michelman, Fidelity and Legitimacy
- Robin West, Constitutional Fidelity and Democratic Legitimacy
- Keith E. Whittington, Originalism Within the Living Constitution
- Peggy Cooper Davis, Constitutional Interpretation as Structured Choice
- Michael S. Greve, Recognizing and Respecting Constitutional Structure
- Jack M. Balkin, Fidelity to Text and Principle
- Kermit Roosevelt, Originalism and the Living Constitution: Reconciliation
- Barry Friedman, The Constitution: Change and Interpretation
- Erwin Chemerinsky, Constitutional Interpretation for the 21st Century
- Rebecca L. Brown, Self Government, Change, and Justice
Follow the link for a detailed description of these Issue Briefs.
Symposium: War, Terrorism and Torture: Limits on Presidential Power in the 21st Century
This symposium was convened by ACS and the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington on October 7, 2005.
The following Issue Briefs were published at the symposium:
- David Cole and Martin S. Lederman, The National Security Agency's Domestic Spying Program: Framing the Debate
- Former OLC Attorneys, Guidelines for the President's Legal Advisors
- William Michael Treanor, The War Powers Outside the Courts
- Christopher H. Schroeder, Loaded Dice and Other Problems: A Further Reflection on the Statutory Commander in Chief
- Saikrishna Prakash, Regulating the Commander in Chief: Some Theories
- H. Jefferson Powell, The Executive and the Avoidance Canon
- Cornelia Pillard, Unitariness and Myopia: The Executive Branch, Legal Process, and Torture
- Deborah N. Pearlstein, Finding Effective Constraints on Executive Power: Interrogation, Detention, and Torture
- Louis Fisher, Lost Constitutional Moorings: Recovering the War Power
- Neil Kinkopf: The Statutory Commander in Chief
- Harold Hongju Koh, Can the President Be Torturer In Chief?
- Dawn E. Johnsen, Foreword: Symposium on "War, Terrorism, and Torture: Limits on Presidential Power in the 21st Century"
Follow the link for a detailed description of these Issues Briefs.
