112 North Sixth Street
Springfield, IL 62701
Midwestern Lawyers Chapters
April 25, 2020This event event has been postponed until Spring 2021. We will update with more information when details become available. If you have already registered and would like a refund, please contact Nancy Clemence at [email protected].
Thank you and we apologize for any inconvenience.
Registration
9:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Panel #1: Fourteenth Amendment
9:30 AM -10:45 AM
The Fourteenth Amendment, adopted in 1868, dramatically changed constitutional law. How are we to understand these changes? How would an originalist understand these changes? Did the Fourteenth Amendment change our Federalism and, if so, how much? Does the Fourteenth Amendment protect unenumerated rights?
Panel #2: Religious Liberty
11:00 AM - 12:15 PM
Leading the charge for abolition during the Civil War-era, among others, were abolitionists with deeply held religious beliefs. Today, virtually everyone supports religious liberty and virtually everyone opposes discrimination. But how do we handle the hard questions that arise when exercises of religious liberty seem to discriminate unjustly? Or when anti-discrimination law unjustly contrain religious liberty? How do we promote the common good while respecting conscience in a diverse society? For example, many religious liberty questions have arisen in response to the redefinition of marriage, such as when bakers, florists, and photographers who do not wish to prove same-sex wedding services and charge for discrimination. This conflict extends well beyond the LGBT arena, notably in the abortion debate. What counts as discrimination, when is it unjust, and when should it be unlawful? Should the law give religion and conscience special protection at all, and if so, why? Might the protection of religious liberty for all serve the ever so pressing need to calming fear and polarization in today’s society?
Keynote Address/Lunch
12:15 PM - 1:45 PM
Panel #3: Future of Habeas Corpus
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
The writ of habeas corpus came to the United States by way of English common law and is explicitly recognized in the Constitution. Among the many important constitutional amendments and statutes passed by Reconstruction Congress was the Habeas Corpus Act of 1867 in which federal courts were authorized to monitor state criminal proceedings to ensure that defendants’ constitutional rights were respected. Today the Supreme Court has limited federal habeas corpus review to state prisoners’ constitutional claims in a string of per curium opinions reversing courts of appeals that grant the writ. Is this a positive development? Can state courts be trusted to guarantee constitutional rights? Do federal courts need to police state courts more? Can the states be trusted? Is there a tension with structural constitutional principles and individual rights in habeas corpus doctrine?
Library Tour
3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Cost to Attend:
CLE Credit for Missouri and Illinois is pending.
Please contact Kate Fugate at [email protected] with any questions.
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