College of Law - Events Calendar

Big Ten Rule of Law Panel: The States' Role in Protecting the Rule of Law

Event Type

Lecture

Sponsor

University of Illinois College of Law, Big 10 Law Schools

Virtual

Join online

Date

May 21, 2025   4:00 - 5:00 pm  

Views

82

Originating Calendar

College of Law - Lectures Calendar

The Big 10 Law Schools present Rule of Law in 2025:

The States' Role in Protecting the Rule of Law
Hosted by the University of Illinois College of Law
Wednesday, May 21
4:00 pm CST

Registration is required. 
Register to attend: https://unl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_GVEfq0btRQS77i0MwXZ70w#/registration

States are raising legal and other objections to many policies of the new Trump administration, including on issues of immigration, education, labor, DEI programs, and the environment. This session will explore the tools that states can deploy in responding to and seeking to reshape federal policies with which they disagree. The session will take up some recent lawsuits initiated by state attorneys general that challenge federal policies, and give attention also to alternative strategies states have for voicing their objections. As we consider recent examples, we’ll keep a close eye on the ways in which the federal Constitution, in structuring the relationship between the national government and the states, may empower or limit state objections to federal policy. 

Featured Panelists
Kwame Raoul
Illinois State Attorney General

Vikram Amar
Professor of Law

Jason Mazzone
Professor of Law

Miriam Seifter
Professor of Law 

The Honorable Kwame Raoul is the 42nd Attorney General for the State of Illinois and has led recent efforts to test the constitutionality of the Trump Administration’s policies. He previously served 14 years as an Illinois State Senator, serving the 13th Legislative District and chairing the Senate Judiciary Committee. Vikram Amar is the Distinguished Professor of Law at UC Davis and former Dean of the University of Illinois College of Law. Jason Mazzone is the Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Professor of Law at the University of Illinois and Director of the Illinois Program in Constitutional Theory, History and Law. Miriam Seifter is Richard E. Johnson Bascom Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin and Co-Director of the State Democracy Research Initiative. Professors Amar, Mazzone, and Seifter are scholars of the role of states in our constitutional system.