All times are listed in Central Standard Time.
8:15 – 9:00 AM: Check-in and breakfast available
9:00 – 9:15 AM: Welcome
Zachary Clopton, Interim Dean, Daniel Hale Williams Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
May Hiatt, Editor-in-Chief, Northwestern University Law Review
Michael Waldman, President and CEO, Brennan Center for Justice
9:15 – 10:15 AM: A conversation with Chief Judge Jeffrey S. Sutton, Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Moderated by Daniel B. Rodriguez, Harold Washington Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
10:30 – 12:00 PM: Voting Rights and Democracy in State Courts
Moderator: Sean Morales-Doyle, Director, Voting Rights and Elections Program, Brennan Center for Justice
Panelists:
Michael Kang, Class of 1940 Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Hon. Allison Riggs, Associate Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
Miriam Seifter, Richard E. Johnson Bascom Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School
12:00 – 1:15 PM: Lunch served
1:15 – 2:45 PM: The Diversity of Rights in State Constitutions
Moderator: Alicia Bannon, Director, Judiciary Program, Brennan Center for Justice
Panelists:
Ting Ting Cheng, Director of the ERA Project at NYU Law’s Birnbaum Women’s Leadership Center
Martha Davis, University Distinguished Professor of Law, Northeastern University School of Law
Andrew Hammond, Professor of Law and Harry T. Ice Faculty Fellow, Maurer School of Law
Hon. Melissa A. Long, Associate Justice, Rhode Island Supreme Court
Anthony Sanders, Director of the Center for Judicial Engagement, Institute for Justice
2:45 – 3:15 PM: Break, Coffee Available
3:15 – 4:30 PM: Breakout Sessions
Breakout sessions are only for in-person attendees.
Breakout Session: Addressing Hurdles to Vindicating State Constitutional Rights
Michelle Garcia, Deputy Director, New Mexico Legal Aid
Marie Miller, Attorney, Institute for Justice
Samira Nazem, Interim Managing Director, National Center for State Courts
Matthew Segal, Co-Director of State Supreme Court Initiative, American Civil Liberties Union
Kathrina Szymborski Wolfkot, Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice
Breakout Session: Criminal Sentencing and Protections for Incarcerated People
Megan Byrne, Staff Attorney, ACLU Capital Punishment Project
Lalita Moskovitz, Senior Prisoners’ Rights Attorney, ACLU New Mexico
Rosemary Nidiry, Senior Counsel, Justice Program, Brennan Center for Justice
David Shapiro, Executive Director, MacArthur Justice Center
Breakout Session: Economic Rights & Economic Justice
Wendy Fields, Vice Chair of Common Cause National Governing Board & Senior Principal, Fields Growth Strategies
Lucien Ferguson, Assistant Professor, Chicago-Kent College of Law
Brian Highsmith, Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Andrew Ward, Senior Attorney, Institute for Justice
Breakout Session: Reproductive Rights
Sue Frietsche, Executive Director and Director of Litigation, Women’s Law Project
Diana Kasdan, Legal and Policy Director for the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy, UCLA School of Law
Karen Thompson, Legal Director, Pregnancy Justice
Deborah Tuerkheimer, Class of 1967 James B. Haddad Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Friday, November 7
9:30 – 10:00 AM: Breakfast available
10:00 – 11:30 AM: Federalism and Interstate Conflicts
Moderator: Zachary Clopton, Interim Dean, Daniel Hale Williams Professor, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Panelists:
Bridget Fahey, Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School
Roderick M. Hills, Jr., William T. Comfort III Professor of Law, NYU School of Law
Jane Elinor (Jenny) Notz, Illinois Solicitor General
Adam Sopko, Associate Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School
Julia Spiegel, Founder and CEO, GovAct
11:45 – 1:00 PM: LGBTQ+ Rights & State Constitutions
Moderator: Kara Ingelhart, Clinical Assistant Professor of Law, Director of the LGBTQ+ Rights Clinic, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Panelists:
Akilah Deernose, Executive Director, ACLU of Montana
Whit Washington, Senior Attorney for the Nonbinary & Transgender Rights Project, Lambda Legal
Evan Wolfson, Founder and President, Freedom to Marry
Quinn Yeargain, 1855 Professor of the Law of Democracy and Associate Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law
1:00 – 2:00 PM: Lunch served
2:00 – 3:30 PM: State Constitutional Amendments and State Conventions
Moderator: Wilfred Codrington, Walter Floersheimer Professor of Constitutional Law, Codirector of Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, Cardozo Law School
Panelists:
Derek Clinger, Senior Staff Attorney, State Democracy Research Initiative
Marcus Gadson, Assistant Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law
Hon. Elizabeth M. Welch, Associate Justice, Michigan Supreme Court
3:30 – 4:30 PM: Closing and reception
