American Constitution Society
American Constitution Society 2022 Supreme Court Preview [featuring Singel]
Register here.
Description:
Join ACS for our Annual Supreme Court Preview, part of our observation of this year’s Constitution Day. After the seismic decisions handed down last Term, all eyes will be on the Court this fall to see what may come next. The Preview will feature a diverse group of constitutional and legal experts offering their insights into the upcoming Supreme Court Term that begins on October 3rd.
Welcome Remarks
Russ Feingold, ACS President
Speakers
Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Correspondent, The New York Times (moderator)
Deborah Archer, President, ACLU; Professor of Clinical Law and Co-Faculty Director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, NYU School of Law
Jonathan Diaz, Senior Legal Counsel, Campaign Legal Center
Kent Greenfield, Professor and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, Boston College Law School
Wenona Singel, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Michigan State University College of Law
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar; and Clinical Professor of Law, Penn State Law
American Constitution Society 2022 Supreme Court Preview — Thursday, 9/15 @ 12:30 EST [featuring Singel]
Register here.
Description:
Join ACS for our Annual Supreme Court Preview, part of our observation of this year’s Constitution Day. After the seismic decisions handed down last Term, all eyes will be on the Court this fall to see what may come next. The Preview will feature a diverse group of constitutional and legal experts offering their insights into the upcoming Supreme Court Term that begins on October 3rd.
Welcome Remarks
Russ Feingold, ACS President
Speakers
Adam Liptak, Supreme Court Correspondent, The New York Times (moderator)
Deborah Archer, President, ACLU; Professor of Clinical Law and Co-Faculty Director of the Center on Race, Inequality, and the Law, NYU School of Law
Jonathan Diaz, Senior Legal Counsel, Campaign Legal Center
Kent Greenfield, Professor and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, Boston College Law School
Wenona Singel, Associate Professor of Law and Director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Michigan State University College of Law
Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; Samuel Weiss Faculty Scholar; and Clinical Professor of Law, Penn State Law
A.C.S. Panel — Founding Failures: Indian Country’s Sovereignty and Subordination (9/17 @ 2:30 eastern)
Here. Check it out. It’s free.
September 17, 2021
2:30 PM – 4:00 PM, Eastern Time
Founding Failures: Indian Country’s Sovereignty and Subordination
Zoom Webinar
Since its founding, the United States government has created and then abrogated treaties with tribal nations, taken tribal land, and pushed policies aimed at stripping indigenous communities of their language and culture. On a day that we celebrate the ratification of our founding document, it is important to remember and better understand the extent to which the U.S. Constitution specifically addresses tribal sovereignty and the ways in which the U.S. government, often enabled by the federal judiciary, has too often blithely violated that sovereignty and harmed the citizens of tribal nations.
Join ACS as we explore the unique impact our constitutional “founding failures” had for Native Americans, the ways in which that legacy differs from other marginalized populations excluded from the original constitutional bargain, and the lessons we can learn to move forward in redressing the harms the United States has committed against tribal nations and their people.
Welcome Remarks:
Russ Feingold, President, ACS
Feature Speakers:
Ambassador Keith Harper, Partner, Jenner & Block, Moderator
Chase Iron Eyes, Lead Counsel, Lakota People’s Law Project
Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Foundation Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law
Elizabeth Reese, Assistant Professor of Law, Stanford University Law School
Addie Rolnick, San Manuel Professor of Law, UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law
The American Constitution Society is a State Bar of California approved provider. This event has been approved for 1.5 hours of California CLE credit.
Please click here for the Reading Materials, Evaluation Form, Record of Attendance, and Certificate of Attendance.
As the nation’s leading progressive legal organization, ACS is committed to ensuring that all aspects of our events are accessible and enjoyable for all. If you require any accommodations, please contact us at LCemails@acslaw.org.
ACS DC: Sovereignty and Status Series: Tribal Nations Today — March 25, 2021
Tribal nations, and the inherent sovereignty they exercise, predate the U.S. Constitution. Although the Constitution discusses “Indians not taxed” and the power of Congress to regulate commerce with “Indian tribes,” it mostly recognizes the otherness of tribal sovereignty. Tribal nations have tirelessly fought to protect their sovereignty against encroachments of federal and state law in the form of both legislation and common law.
Join the ACS DC, Austin, and Los Angeles Lawyer Chapters, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association, and the Native American Bar Association of Washington, D.C. for a discussion that will focus on tribal sovereignty and how tribal nations interact with the federal and state governments. We hope to discuss the historical context, legal theory, and real world application of tribal sovereignty and the challenges that tribal nations face today. To help guide the discussion we are joined by a tribal leader, a leading Indian law scholar, and a general counsel of a tribal consortium.
Featuring:
Matthew Fletcher, Professor, Michigan State University College of Law
Leonard Forsman, Chairman, Suquamish Tribe
Natasha Singh, General Counsel, Tanana Chiefs Conference
Moderated by:
Josh Clause, Principal, Clause Law P.L.L.C.
ACS Issue Brief — Domestic Violence in Indian Country & Tribal Sovereignty
From the American Constitution Society:
ACS is pleased to distribute an Issue Brief by Matthew L.M. Fletcher, Director of the Indigenous Law and Policy Center and Associate Professor at the Michigan State University College of Law, entitled, “Addressing the Epidemic of Domestic Violence in Indian Country by Restoring Tribal Sovereignty.” In this Issue Brief, Professor Fletcher argues that American Indian women residing on Indian reservations suffer from domestic violence and physical assaults at rates that far exceed those faced by other women, and that the perpetrators of these crimes often go unpunished. Professor Fletcher contends that the current state of federal Indian law has contributed to this epidemic of domestic violence in Indian Country. The author first notes that the Supreme Court has held that tribal governments do not have jurisdiction over domestic violence misdemeanors committed by non-Indians in Indian Country, and second that although federal and state authorities may prosecute these crimes, they often do not do so because of a lack of resources and other factors.
Michigan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly to Speak at MSU
The Honorable Marilyn J. Kelly
Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
With an introduction by:
Joan W. Howarth
Dean and Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
7:00 pm – Hors d’oeuvres
7:30 pm – Program
Kellogg Conference Center
55 S. Harrison Road
Big Ten Room A
East Lansing, Michigan
There is no cost to attend this event.
ACS Issue Brief on the NLRB — Holy Irony!!!!
The American Constitution Society just released an issue brief called “Understanding How Employees’ Rights to Organize Under the National Labor Relations Act Have Been Limited: The Case of Brown University.” Anyone following Indian Law knows that not all employees have this problem!
Here it is: dannin-issue-brief
Just take the words “Brown University” and replace them with “San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino” and you have a wildly different result. This issue brief, which is well-written, notes how the NLRB ignores precedent to reach pro-employer results and harms employee rights. Unfortunately, there is no mention of the San Manuel Indian Bingo and Casino decision (from the same year as the Brown University decision, 2004), which reversed 30 years of precedent, gave short shrift to tribal sovereignty, and utterly ignored the governmental purposes of tribal gaming.
I haven’t seen any issue briefs on Indian Law from the ACS, an organization I support. I suppose it’s not a major issue for the ACS, but I urge the ACS and its issue brief writers to consider Indian Law on occasion. Dean Getches wrote a decade ago that tribal interests fare worse than any class of litigant before the Supreme Court, worse than convicted criminals, and not much has changed to the benefit of tribal interests.
Here are a few things the ACS could write about:
- The 75 percent loss rate of tribal interests before the SCT since 1986
- The hostility of the Supreme Court toward tribal criminal and civil jurisdiction over non-Indians, which contributes directly to a serious crime and regulatory problem in Indian Country
- The hostility of the Supreme Court toward tribal interests in disputes with states and state agencies (a federalism issue )
- The incredible advances that tribes (and states and local governments) have made in using intergovernmental agreements to negotiate away troublesome jurisdictional quandries
- The hostility of the federal government toward Indians and Indian tribes in the context of Indian gaming and individual Indian money accounts
- The voting rights cases still being brought by the ACLU Voting Rights Project in Indian Country
There are many other issues. There’s a lot of good things going on in Indian Country, too.
Supreme Court Preview @ MSU Law College, Tuesday at 3:30 PM
I’ll be giving a talk tomorrow at the law college at the behest of the MSU chapter of the ACS: a preview of the 2007 Term of the Supreme Court.
Here’s a preview of the preview — namely, a list of the cases I plan on discussing tomorrow, with links to briefs and other materials as available:
Boumediene v. Bush (No. 06-1195)
Al-Odah v. Bush (No. 06-1196)
Baze v. Rees (No. 07-5439)
Crawford v. Marion Election Board (No. 07-21)
Democratic Party v. Rokita (No. 07-25)
District of Columbia v. Heller (No. 07-290)
FCC v. Fox Television Stations (No. 07-582)
United States v. Williams (No. 06-694)
Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker (No. 07-219)
Medellin v. Texas (No. 06-984)
Danforth v. Minnesota (No. 06-8273)
Carcieri v. Kempthorne (No. 07-526)
Matthew L.M. Fletcher
Turtle Talk 
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