Constitutional law at Akron Law

CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL LAW

Congress established the Center for Constitutional Law (CCL) at 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.

Events

Call for Papers: Pandemics and the Constitution. Because scholarship on this subject will be a vital guide to the public and legal community in the months ahead, ConLawNOW is seeking to publish a written symposium of short essays. Papers will be reviewed and published on a rolling basis through August 2020. Please see details here.

September 14, 2020 - 12:15 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. (Brennan Courtroom), Prof.Mary Anne Franks (Miami Law), Regula Lecture Book Talk: The Cult of the Constitution.

September 17, 2020 - 12:15 p.m., Constitution Day Speaker, Professor Katie Eyer (Rutgers), LGBT Anti-Discrimination and the Constitution.

Nov. 20, 2019 - 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., "Impeaching a President: Understanding the Current Moment," with Professor Marty Belsky, Professor David Cohen, Professor Brant Lee and Professor Tracy Thomas, co-sponsored by the Akron Press Club (UA Quaker Station). Register here.

Sept. 20, 2019 - 8 to 5 p.m., 7th Constitutional Law Conference: The 19th Amendment at 100: From the Vote To Gender Equality.

July 25, 2019, "The Constitutional Legacy of Seneca Falls," We the People Podcast, National Constitution Center.

June 25, 2019 - 11:30 a.m., Professor Tracy Thomas, "A History of Ohio's Ratification of Women's Suffrage," in conjunction with the Summit County Historical Society and the Akron-Summit County Public Library (Law Library).

March 13, 2019 - 12 p.m., Professor Tracy Thomas, Keynote Address, Women of the Year Awards, Summit County Historical Society (Greystone).

March 5, 2019 - Regula Lecture: Judge Jeff Sutton, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, Book Talk: 51 Imperfect Solutions. See video of Sutton's lecture. See summary.

Jan. 25, 2019 - 50 Years with the 25th Amendment: When a President is Unable to Discharge the Duties of Office, co-sponsored with The University of Akron's Ray C. Bliss Institute. Video of Program. Papers to be published in Vol. 10 ConLawNOW.

— Event flyer

Past events

Publications

Center for Constitutional Law publications

ConLawNOW Journal

Center for Constitutional Law newsletter

Leadership

Tracy Thomas is director of the CCL and the Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law. Her work focuses on questions of gender and civil rights remedies. Professor Thomas 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.