Law & Politics

​In a contentious election year, journalism students at CU Boulder have partnered with local news outlets to keep the facts straight by publishing articles that challenge statements made by Colorado politicians and live fact checking major political debates.

The newly created American Politics Research Lab, housed in the Department of Political Science, aims to involve undergraduate and graduate students in taking Colorado's political pulse every year. “This is the first year of what we hope will be an ongoing record of opinion on public affairs within the state,” said political scientist Scott Adler.

Five years after the Arab Spring uprisings rocked the Middle East, former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril offered University of Colorado Boulder students a front-row perspective on the protests’ genesis, their shortcomings and the lessons the world should absorb in the coming decades.

U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, appointed in 2009 as the first Hispanic member on the bench of the nation’s highest court, spoke of self-worth and determination to a crowd of nearly 1,800 at CU Boulder’s Macky Auditorium on Sept. 2. 



Those bemused by political prattle on Facebook or the flag-waving frenzy at both major parties’ national conventions should withhold judgment about citizens who become politically extreme, according to new research by Jessica Keating, a PhD candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience. The study examined how even short discussions among like-minded people can radicalize individuals, often without them knowing their attitudes have changed.

As the guest jurist for the fifth John Paul Stevens Lecture, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will join a "fireside chat" on Sept. 2 at Macky Auditorium, CU Boulder announced today. The event is hosted by the Byron R. White Center for the Study of American Constitutional Law and is free and open to the campus community and public. Registration is required by Aug. 22.

Kicking off with a lecture on employment law, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Mini Law School will be offered from 6 to 7:30 p.m. over seven Tuesdays Sept. 13 through Nov. 11.

The seven undergraduate students in Professor Jeffrey Zax’s Applied Economic Analysis and Public Policy class didn’t stop at analyzing the economic impact of bills considered during the recently concluded legislative session. They even showed up to testify. The students also created a legislative scorecard, evaluating all bills considered by legislators this session and giving the Colorado General Assembly mixed reviews in terms of proposed bills’ impact on the state’s economy.

Organized by CU-Boulder’s Community Engagement Design and Research Center (CEDaR), CU-Boulder and the city of Boulder together have joined the MetroLab Network , a nationwide collection of 35 city-university partnerships focused on bringing data, analytics and innovation to local government.

CU-Boulder’s Innovative Seed Grant program is awarding $1 million through 23 grants that take investigators in creative and sometimes high-risk, high-reward directions, like a new project exploring the relationship between climate change and political instability in the Middle East.