Center for Constitutional Law
Congress established the Center for Constitutional Law (CCL) at The University of Akron in 1986 as one of four national resource centers dedicated to legal research on constitutional issues.
Akron Law created the John F. Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law to fulfill this mission.
The Center has hosted visiting U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Justice Arthur Goldberg. The Center fosters scholarly research, public education, and student engagement on current topics of constitutional import.
Leadership
Tracy Thomas
Tracy Thomas is director of the CCL and the Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law.
Professor Thomas' work focuses on questions of gender and civil rights remedies. She is the author of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & the Feminist Foundations of Family Law, Feminist Legal History, and Remedies: Public and Private (West 2017).
She is editor of the Gender Law Prof Blog. As a practicing attorney at Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C., Thomas litigated pro bono cases of constitutional prison conditions, gender equality, and criminal procedure.
Listen: The 19th Amendment: From the Vote to the ERA
Professor Tracy A. Thomas, director of the CCL and the Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law, speaks to the Summit County Historical Society in March 2019.
Upcoming events
April 11, 2022
- Regula Lecture, Dr. Kate Masur (Northwestern), "Book Talk, Until Justice Be Done: America's First Civil Rights Movement." Watch here.
September 15,2022
- Prof. Maggie Blackhawk (NYU), America's Other Original Sin: Indians and the Constitution in the Shadow of Empire (Law 180 & online)
October 28,2022
- Con Law Scholars Forum, CFP "The Future of Reproductive Rights"
Feb. 28, 2022
- Tracy Thomas, University of Maryland School of Law, "From the 19th to the ERA: The Validity of Constitutional Amendments," register here.
Feb. 4, 2022
- Virtual Colloquium, Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and the Constitution: How LGBTQ Rights are Defined, Protected, and Preempted. Papers Published in ConLawNOW Available Here.
Oct. 20, 2021
- A Look at 100 Years of Press Freedom and Litigation. University of Akron School of Law Professor Mike Gentithes will discuss "100 Years of Press Freedom: Where Free Press Litigation Leads, Society Follows" in a virtual Akron Press Club program at noon Wednesday, October 20, 2021.
Sep 16, 2021 (Room 180)
- Constitution Day Lecture, Professor Katie Eyer (Rutgers Law), The Equal Protection of the Text.
- Watch the Contsitutional Day lecture here
Aug 2021
- PBS documentary (ThinkTV), Profesor Tracy Thomas, "Let Ohio Woman Vote."
July 2021
- American Bar Association Judicial Conference, Profesor Tracy Thomas, The Nineteenth Amendment: Examining the "Irrelevant Amendment" on its 100th Anniversary.
Feb 5, 2021, Virtual Symposium: Examining Black Citizenship from Reconstruction to Black Lives Matter. Symposium papers published here.
Jan 2021, Tracy Thomas, Discerning Remedial Principles in the Supreme Court's Shadow Docket, AALS Annual Meeting.
Sep - Dec 2020, Brant Lee, Racial Equality & the Law, Community Course
Sep 14, 2020 (Virtual Lecture), Prof.Mary Anne Franks (Miami Law), Constitution Day Lecture: The Cult of the Constitution.See flyer.
Sep 2020, Tracy Thomas, The Nineteenth Amendment: The Conventional Story . . . Sort of, Ohio Judicial Conference Annual Meeting.
Publications
For students
Constitutional Law is the study of the U.S. Constitution and its provision of individual civil rights and government powers. Akron Law offers a Certificate of Study in Constitutional Law allowing students to concentrate their elective studies in the field. We also offer fellowships with the Center for Constitutional Law, the Knight Foundation Fellowship in media law, and Social Justice Project with Professor Brant Lee. A joint degree of a JD/Master of Applied Politics is also available. A wide variety of student organizations facilitate discussion and engagement with current issues.
To donate
Make a gift to support the work of the Center for Constitutional Law (indicate "for Con Law Center"), and at the Akron Law donation page.
Contact us
For more information or to contact the Center for Con Law, please email us at conlawcenter@uakron.edu.