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Slavery in the United States

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  • Slavery in the United States
Sep 8 2026
Tuesday 12:00 p.m. EDT    

Did the Constitution Lay the Groundwork for Abolition?

The Founders Gave Us the Tools Series

Speakers:
Cory R. Liu • Timothy Sandefur • Kenneth Williams
Topics:
Civil Rights • Constitution • Founding Era & History
Sponsors:
Civil Rights Practice Group • The American History & Tradition Project
  • Live Stream
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James Madison Portrait
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Speaker Information
Cory R. Liu

Cory R. Liu

State District Judge, Austin, Texas

Biography

Cory Liu is a state district judge in Austin, Texas. He previously served as assistant general counsel to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. Mr. Liu clerked for Judge Andrew Oldham on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and Judge Danny Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy and is a graduate of Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago.

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Speaker Information
Timothy Sandefur

Timothy Sandefur

Vice President for Legal Affairs, Goldwater Institute

Biography
Timothy Sandefur is the Vice President for Legal Affairs at the Goldwater Institute’s Scharf-Norton Center for Constitutional Litigation and holds the Duncan Chair in Constitutional Government. He litigates to promote economic liberty, private property rights, free speech, and other crucial values in states across the country.
 
Timothy is the author of nine books, including most recently You Don’t Own Me: Individualism and the Culture of Liberty (2025), and Freedom’s Furies: How Isabel Paterson, Rose Wilder Lane, and Ayn Rand Found Liberty in an Age of Darkness (2022), as well as more than 50 scholarly articles on a wide variety of legal subjects. A frequent guest on radio and television, he is well known to radio audiences as “Tim the Lawyer” on The Armstrong & Getty Show, and his writings have appeared in Reason, National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, and The Objective Standard, where he is a contributing editor. He has taught classes at Pepperdine University, McGeorge School of Law, George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, and Arizona State University, where he held the 2023-24 Barry Goldwater Chair in American Institutions.
 
He is an Adjunct Scholar with the Cato Institute and is a graduate of Hillsdale College and Chapman University School of Law.
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Speaker Information
Kenneth Williams

Kenneth Williams

Fred Gray Endowed Chair for Civil Rights and Constitutional Law, Texas Tech University School of Law

Biography

Professor Kenneth Williams is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and currently the Fred Gray Endowed Chair for Civil Rights and Constitutional Law at Texas Tech University School of Law where he teaches Race, Racism and the Law, Civil Rights, Constitutional Law and Capital Punishment, Professor Williams is also a national expert on Capital Punishment.  He is the author of  a book on the death penalty, “Most Deserving of Death?” Professor Williams is also a co-author of a Criminal Law textbook published by the Carolina Academic Press, Criminal Law: Concepts, Crimes and Defenses.  He has also authored numerous law review articles on issues related to Criminal Law Constitutional Law and the Death Penalty.  Professor Williams was selected as a Fulbright Specialist and during the summer of 2013 where he taught a course on the American Legal System at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. Professor Williams has continued his relationship with this institution as a visiting  professor.  Professor Williams has also taught in summer abroad programs in Argentina, Chile and Canada. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, Professor Williams has represented several death row inmates during their federal habeas corpus proceedings.  In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari that Professor Williams prepared on behalf of his death sentenced client. He has also been successful before both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas in obtaining relief for inmates who were sentenced to death in violation of their constitutional rights. Professor Williams has also made numerous media appearances discussing issues related to criminal law and capital punishment. He has been quoted in the New York Times, Washington Post, Houston Chronicle, Charlotte Observer, NBC news, USA Today, Beaumont Enterprise, Daily Beast, Virginia Pilot, Texas Tribune and Associated Press. Professor Williams has also been interviewed on News nation, Al Jazeera, and local ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates. He has also been interviewed on numerous radio programs including National Public Radio.

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