Upcoming Sessions

Race and Religion: A Case Study on Indigenous Peoples in the United States
Thursday, February 18, 2021 | 5 - 6:15 p.m. MST
Professor Kristen Carpenter.

Criminalizing Race: A Practitioner’s Perspective on Policing and Mass Incarceration
Tuesday, February 23, 2021 | 5 - 6:15 p.m. MST
Tyrone Glover ('09), a civil rights and criminal defense lawyer at Killmer, Lane & Newman, LLP.

Racial Implications of Injustices in Food and Agriculture
Thursday, March 11, 2021 | 5 - 6:15 p.m. MST
Associate Professor Alexia Brunet Marks and postdoctoral research fellow Hunter Knapp ('20).

When Black Lives Don't Matter: Years Lost to Wrongful Convictions in the Black Community
Thursday, April 29, 2021 | 5 - 6:15 p.m. MDT
Anne-Marie Moyes, director of the Korey Wise Innocence Project, and Ann England, clinical professor of law.
Details TBA

The Diversification of Inequality: The Question of Class and the Politics of Inclusion
Thursday, May 6, 2021 | 5 - 6:15 p.m. MDT
Professor Ahmed White.
Details TBA
Watch Previous Race and the Law Sessions
Race and the Constitution
Professor Helen Norton
In this lecture, Professor Helen Norton will examine different interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause and their impact on racial inequality. It wasn’t until the Fourteenth Amendment’s ratification in 1868 that the Constitution included an explicit textual commitment to equality. Contemporary debates over the meaning of the constitutional term “equal protection” often turn on the choice between anti-subordination understandings of equality law (think, for example, of Justice Harry Blackmun’s statement that “In order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way”) and anti-classification approaches (recall, for instance, Chief Justice John Roberts’ statement that “The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”). This talk will examine when and how the distinction between these approaches makes a difference in courts’ and policymakers’ ability to address structural inequality.
When Cruelty Becomes Ordinary
Clinical Professor Violeta Chapin
Tackling Racial Bias in the Midst of a Global Pandemic: The City’s Response to Covid-19 – Legal Aspects of Public Health Orders, Compliance, and Enforcement
Members of the Denver City Attorney's Office
Equality Still Dampened
S. James Anaya, Dean and University Distinguished Professor
In his lecture, Dean Anaya discussed how race and the idea of equality have played out in federal law, through the lens of several U.S. Supreme Court and other appellate cases. He examined the extent to which racism and its legacies are still present or enabled in federal law and judicial decision-making, and discussed how law’s call to equality can be a rival but not always sufficient force. Finally, he highlighted the need for an energized anti-racist stance by all legal professionals, in as much as each one may influence or determine the law’s content and application.