Encyclopedia > American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is an organization to promote a progressive understanding of the United States Constitution. To accomplish this goal, it organizes chapters of both lawyers and law students, holds frequent events to educate legal professionals about the law, and coordinates issue groups that aim to synthesize and promote a progressive vision of the law. Progressivism is a term that refers to a broad school of international social and political philosophies. ...
Page one of the original copy of the Constitution. ...
ACS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization founded in Spring 2001 by Peter Rubin and David Halperin.[1] It is a national organization of "law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, policymakers, activists and other concerned individuals working to ensure that the fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice are accorded their rightful, central place in American law."[2] 501C3 refers to section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code that exempts payment of federal income taxes for groups that are organized for charitable, religious, scientific, literary or educational purposes. ...
The Constitution in the 21st Century Project
The Constitution in the 21st Century project's purpose is "to promote positive, much-needed change in our legal and policy landscape" by "bring[ing] together scholars and practitioners to formulate and advance a progressive vision of our Constitution and laws that is intellectually sound, practically relevant and faithful to our constitutional values and heritage" through a series of law and policy issue groups that "communicate and popularize progressive ideas through papers, conferences and media outreach."[3]
Project Issue Groups:
- Access to Justice
- Constitutional Interpretation and Change
- Criminal Justice
- Democracy and Voting
- Economic, Workplace and Environmental Regulation
- Equality and Liberty
- Religion Clauses
- Separation of Powers and Federalism
Published white papers include advocacy of Instant Runoff Voting[4], a zero tolerance policy with respect to torture[5], and a meaningful interpretation of the Establishment Clause which would prohibit religious orthodoxy from being taught in public schools[6]. Other ACS White Papers have focused defining the proper scope of legal protections for journalists and their sources[7], preserving the constitutional rights of so-called enemy combatants[8], and using existing law to protect the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans[9]. A white paper is an authoritative report. ...
When the single transferable vote voting system is applied to a single-winner election it is sometimes called instant-runoff voting (IRV), as it is much like holding a series of runoff elections in which the lowest polling candidate is eliminated in each round until someone receives majority vote. ...
Journal The Harvard Law & Policy Review (HLPR) is the official journal of the American Constitution Society[10]. Founded in 2006, HLPR promotes innovative approaches to policy challenges by providing a credible and prominent forum for substantive debate between progressive legal scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is an organization to promote a progressive understanding of the United States Constitution. ...
Speakers Speakers at ACS events have included: - Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer;
- Federal judges Ann Aiken, Lynn Adelman, Marsha Berzon, Rosemary Barkett, William Bryant, Guido Calabresi, Ruben Castillo, Robin J. Cauthron, David Coar, Andre Davis, Michael J. Davis, Raymond Fisher, William Fletcher, Marvin Garbis, Merrick Garland, Nancy Gertner, John Gleeson, Joan Gottschall, David Hamilton, Michael Daly Hawkins, Thelton Henderson, Ellen Segal Huvelle, William Wayne Justice, Alex Kozinski, Kermit Lipez, Gerard Lynch, Boyce Martin, Paul Magnuson, Michael McConnell, Michael McCuskey, Theodore McKee, Diana Gribbon Motz, Louis Oberdorfer, Richard Paez, Virginia Phillips, Robert Pratt, Jed S. Rakoff, Stephen Reinhardt, James Rosenbaum, Edmund Sargus, Shira Scheindlin, Mary Schroeder, Sonia Sotomayor, Jeffrey Sutton, David Tatel, Kim McLane Wardlaw and Diane Wood;
- Former Vice President Al Gore;
- Senators Joe Biden, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Russ Feingold, Tom Harkin, Edward Kennedy, Charles Schumer and the late Paul Wellstone;
- Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Bob Barr, Artur Davis, Rosa DeLauro, Barney Frank, Jesse Jackson, Jr., John Lewis and Jan Schakowsky;
- Former Senators John Edwards and Gary Hart;
- Former Attorney General Janet Reno;
- Former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder; and
- Former Solicitors General Drew Days, Walter Dellinger, and Seth Waxman.
Ruth Joan Bader Ginsburg (born March 15, 1933, Brooklyn, New York) is an Associate Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court. ...
Stephen Gerald Breyer (born August 15, 1938) is an American attorney, political figure, and jurist. ...
Ann L. Aiken (born December 29, 1951) is a United States District Court judge for the District of Oregon. ...
Marsha L. Berzon (born in 1945 in Cincinnati, Ohio) is a federal appeals judge who has served on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals since 2000. ...
Judge Barkett is a Federal Appeals Court Judge on the 11th Circuit of the United States. ...
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