Critical Race Judgments: Rewritten U.S. Court Opinions on Race and the Law
Monday, March 21, 2022
12:45 – 2:00pm
Boston University School of Law
765 Commonwealth Avenue
Barristers Hall, 1st Floor
A symposium to celebrate the publication of “Critical Race Judgments: Rewritten U.S. Court Opinions on Race and the Law” (Cambridge University Press, 2022), by Professor Bennett Capers, Professor Devon Carbado, Professor Robin Lenhardt, and Dean Angela Onwuachi-Willig. This symposium will be presented virtually and in person for members of the BU Community.
How might seminal court opinions have been written had judges versed in Critical Race Theory decided the cases? The essays in this volume re-write US Supreme Court opinions (and a few lower court opinions) that implicate critical dimensions of racial justice, demonstrating how Critical Race Theory can concretely inform the task of judging. Organized around the five themes of Membership and Inclusion, Participation and Access, Property and Space, Intimate Association and Autonomy, and Justice, the book’s chapters address such issues as the death penalty, employment, voting, policing, education, the environment, justice, housing, immigration, sexual orientation, segregation, and mass incarceration. While some rewritten cases, such as Plessy v. Ferguson (which constitutionalized Jim Crow) and Korematsu v. United States (which constitutionalized race-based internment), originally focused on race, many of the rewritten opinions, such as Lawrence v. Texas (which constitutionally invalidated sodomy laws) and Roe v. Wade (which constitutionalized a woman’s right to choose), are used to incorporate racial justice principles in novel and important ways. Given the limited space that Critical Race Theory occupies in case law, as well as questions about what Critical Race Theory truly represents, a clear articulation of what a Critical Race Theory presence might look like in legal doctrine is particularly crucial.
Commentators:
Paul A. Gowder, Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
Randall L. Kennedy, Michael R. Klein Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Patricia J. Williams, University Distinguished Professor of Law and Humanities, Northeastern University School of Law
Discussants:
Bennett Capers, Professor of Law and Director of Center for Race, Law & Justice, Fordham University School of Law
Devon W. Carbado, Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Robin A. Lenhardt, Professor of Law, Georgetown Law
Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Dean and Ryan Roth Gallo & Ernest J. Gallo Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
About the Panel
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