Ira C. Rothgerber Jr. Conference

The 28th Annual Ira C. Rothgerber Conference took place on April 3, 2020. This year's conference focused on the topic "Women’s Enfranchisement: Beyond the 19th Amendment". 2020 marked the centennial of the 19th Amendment, formally extending suffrage to some, but not all, women, and is a presidential election year with an unprecedented number of female candidates running for national and local offices. But barriers to both political rights and social, lived equality persist, particularly for women at the intersections of race, sex, and class. The 28th Annual Ira C. Rothgerber Conference used the centennial to take stock of how far we’ve come—and how far we have to go—in terms of formal political enfranchisement as well as the social and economic empowerment of women more broadly.

Introductory Remarks by Suzette Malveaux and Keynote Address by Reva Siegel (Yale Law)  

Panel 1: “Historical Perspectives on the Nineteenth Amendment: Looking Back, Looking Forward” 

• Prof. Carolyn Ramsey (Colorado Law) 

• Prof. Julie Suk (CUNY, Graduate Center) 

• Prof. Mary Ziegler (Florida State Univ. Law)  

• Prof. Susan Schulten (University of Denver, History)

Panel 2: “Barriers to Political Representation” 

• Prof. Dara Stolovitch (Princeton, Gender & Sexuality Studies)  

• Prof. Atiba Ellis (Marquette Law)  

• Prof. Bertrall Ross (Berkeley Law) 

• Prof. Justin Levitt (Loyola Law) 

• Prof. Ming Chen (Colorado Law)  

Panel 3 “Lived Equality: Beyond Formal Political Rights” 

• Prof. Aya Gruber (Colorado Law) 

• Chinyere Ezie (Staff Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights) 

• Diana Flynn (Litigation Director, Lamda Legal) 

•  Prof. Cary Franklin (Univ. Texas Law) 

• Prof. Scott Skinner-Thompson (Colorado Law) 

Introductory Remarks & Keynote Address 

Panel 1 

Panel 2 

Panel 3 

The 27th Annual Rothgerber Conference took place Friday, April 5, 2019, and was open to the public. This year's conference focused on the topic, "National Injunctions: What Does the Future Hold?", and featured an exciting panel of diverse scholars, with remarks by Phil Weiser, Colorado Attorney General; and Professor Suzette Malveaux, University of Colorado Law School.   

At the 26th Annual Rothgerber Constitutional Law Conference on Friday, April 13, 2018, speakers from around the U.S. explored a broad range of issues related to listeners’ constitutional interests and rights, including when and why listeners’ interests should matter to First Amendment law, how we might go about determining listeners’ interests, and what to do when listeners’ interests may be in tension with speakers’ interests -- generally or in specific contexts involving speech to voters, consumers, workers, students, information users, shareholders, clients, consumers of the media, and other specific individuals or communities.

Scholarship

• Listeners' Choices, James Grimmelmann 
• Limiting the Right to Buy Silence: A Hearer-Centered Approach, Burt Neuborne
• Powerful Speakers and Their Listeners, Helen Norton
• When Audiences Object: Free Speech and Campus Speaker Protests, Gregory P. Magarian
• The MacGuffin and the Net: Taking Internet Listeners Seriously, Derek E. Bambauer
• Press Speakers and the First Amendment Rights of Listeners, RonNell Andersen Jones
• Data Subjects’ Privacy Rights: Regulation of Personal Data Retention and Erasure, Alexander Tsesis
• Commercial Speech Protection as Consumer Protection, Felix T. Wu

The 25th Annual Rothgerber Constitutional Law Conference addressed the topic of “Truth, Lies, and the Constitution.” Speakers included:

• Professor Alan Chen, University of Denver Sturm College of Law 
• Professor Carla Fredericks, University of Colorado School of Law 
• Professor David Han, Pepperdine University School of Law 
• Professor B. Jessie Hill, Case Western Reserve University School of Law 
• Professor Gregory Klass, Georgetown Law School 
• Professor Justin Marceau, University of Denver Sturm College of Law 
• Professor Helen Norton, University of Colorado School of Law 
• Professor Catherine Ross, George Washington University School of Law 
• Professor Mark Spottswood, Florida State University College of Law 
• Professor James Weinstein, Sandra Day O’Connor Arizona State University College of Law 
• Professor Christina Wells, University of Missouri School of Law 

Keynote Address

Panel One

Panel Two

Panel Three

 

Scholarship

• Climate Change Disinformation, Citizen Competence, and the First Amendment James Weinstein
• Incredible Lies Catherine J. Ross
• Sex, Lies, and Ultrasound B. Jessie Hill
• Government Lies and the Press Clause Helen Norton
• Standing Rock, the Sioux Treaties, and the Limits of the Supremacy Clause Carla F. Fredericks & Jesse D. Heibel
• Free Speech Hypocrisy: Campus Free Speech Conflicts and the Sub-Legal First Amendment Christina E. Wells
• Truth, Lies, and the Confrontation Clause Mark Spottswood
• Categorizing Lies David S. Han
• Developing a Taxonomy of Lies Under the First Amendment© Alan K. Chen & Justin Marceau
• The Law of Deception: A Research Agenda Gregory Klass

The 24^th Annual Rothgerber Conference offered attendees the opportunity to recognize the contributions of Colorado Law Professor Robert Nagel to constitutional scholarship over the course of his career. Speakers included:

• Professor Larry Alexander, San Diego Law School
• Professor Paul Campos, University of Colorado Law School
• Professor Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School
• Dr. Matthew Franck, Director, William E. and Carol G. Simon Center on Religion and the Constitution
• Professor Michael Greve, George Mason University School of Law
• Professor Stephen Presser, Northwestern Law School
• Professor Frederick Schauer, Virginia Law School

Panel One

Panel Two

The 23rd Annual Rothgerber Conference, “Presidential Interpretation of the Constitution,” brought academics from around the country to explore the themes raised in Professor Hal Bruff’s recently published Uncommon Ground: How Presidents Interpret the Constitution. Professor Bruff delivered a keynote address. Speakers included:

• Gabrielle Appleby, University of South Wales
• Henry L. Chambers, Jr., Richmond School of Law
• Kathleen Clark, Washington University Law School
• Martin Flaherty, Fordham Law School
• Heidi Kitrosser, University of Minnesota Law School
• David Pozen, Columbia Law School
• Peter Shane, Ohio State University Moritz College of Law
• Kevin Stack, Vanderbilt Law School
• Adam Webster, University of Adelaide, South Australia

At the 22nd Annual Rothgerber Conference, on October 2, 2014, academics and attorneys from around the country gathered to discuss how litigation strategy has pushed and is continuing to push constitutional change. There were three panels during the conference, focusing on these topics: race and constitutional litigation; getting to same-sex marriage; and constitutional litigation and movement identity.

The 21st Annual Rothgerber Conference focused on federalism and its impact on the constitutional debates surrounding the legalization of marijuana, gay marriage, gun rights, and immigration. Yale Law School Professor Heather Gerken gave the conference's keynote address, entitled "The Political Safeguards of Horizontal Federalism."

The 20th Annual Rothgerber Conference took place in November 2012 and focused on expanding Constitutional literacy to the public.  The Conference featured keynote speaker Professor Mark Tushnet of Harvard Law, a prominate advocate in popular constitutionalism. 

Video of Professor Mark Tushnet's Keynote Address

Video from Panel Discussion

 

On November 4-5, 2011, participants in the 19th Annual Rothgerber Conference spoke about “Toward a Constitutional Right of Access to Justice: Implications and Implementation.” The Conference explored the many facets of access to justice, with panelists discussing recent Supreme Court decisions on the civil right to counsel and taxpayer standing; the role of law school clinics, pro bono work and cause lawyering in providing access; and the crisis in funding and other barriers to operationalizing access.