DEBATING THE FUTURE OF RACE
On Saturday, March 8th, distinguished lawyers Charles Ogletree and Kathleen Sullivan argued a case before a panel of equally distinguished “judges,” examining the possible debate over exactly who qualifies for racial preferences as America becomes increasingly multiracial. Students at Yale Law School, under the supervision of Professor Akhil Amar, developed a case which raises fascinating questions about identity, race, and equal protection under the law, and is bound to stir provocative and meaningful debate. Judges included Akhil Amar, Ronald Castille, Ida Chen, Michael Fitts, Kent Jordan, Judith Kaye, Jane Roth, Ted Shaw, and Dolores Sloviter.
The event was located at the U.S. Courthouse Ceremonial Courtroom at 601 Market Street.
Charles Ogletree, the Harvard Law School Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and Founding and Executive Director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, is a prominent legal theorist who has made an international reputation by taking a hard look at complex issues of law and by working to secure the rights guaranteed by the Constitution for everyone equally under the law. Ogletree has examined these issues not only in the classroom, on the Internet, and in the pages of prestigious law journals, but also in the everyday world of the public defender in the courtroom and in public television forums where these issues can be dramatically revealed. He promotes dialogue by insisting that the justice system protect rights guaranteed to those citizens by law.
Kathleen M. Sullivan is a nationally prominent scholar and teacher of constitutional law. Author of the nation’s leading casebook in constitutional law, she has published articles on federalism, religion, speech, equality, and constitutional theory. A professor of law at Harvard Law School before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1993, she is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. Also an outstanding litigator who has argued before numerous appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, she has been named by the National Law Journal as one of the 100 most influential lawyers in America. From 2004-2005, Sullivan served as a National Constitution Center Visiting Scholar.
Akhil Amar is the Southmayd Professor of Law and Political Science at Yale University.
Ronald Castille is the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Ida Chen is a judge for the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas.
Michael Fitts is Dean and the Bernard G. Segal Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Kent Jordan is a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Judith Kaye is the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals of the State of New York. She is on the Advisory Board of the Peter Jennings Project for Journalists and the Constitution.
Jane Roth is a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
Ted Shaw is the outgoing Director-Counsel and President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. and a Visiting Scholar at the National Constitution Center.
Dolores Sloviter is a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.
