Home Official News Releases Annual Drake Constitutional Symposium focuses on economic inequality

Annual Drake Constitutional Symposium focuses on economic inequality

Annual Drake Constitutional Symposium focuses on economic inequality

On Saturday, April 14, an esteemed line-up of constitutional law experts from across the country will discuss “Constitutionalism and the Poor” at the annual Drake University Law School Constitutional Law Center Symposium.

The event, which is open to the public, starts with check-in and a continental breakfast at 8 a.m. in the Constitutional Law Center (Room 213) in Drake’s Cartwright Hall. The program will commence at 8:30 a.m. Registration is limited, and costs $10 for non-Drake-affiliated individuals. Registration forms must be received by Monday, April 9.

Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark S. Cady and Mark Kende, director of Drake’s Constitutional Law Center, will moderate the symposium. Peter Edelman, professor of law and faculty director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center, will present the day’s keynote address, “Dandridge v. Williams Redux: A Look Back From the 21st Century.”

Attendees will also hear the following presentations:

  • “Occupy Pennsylvania Avenue: How the Government’s Unconstitutional Actions Harm the Poor” Ilya Shapiro, senior fellow in Constitutional Studies and editor-in-chief of Cato Supreme Court Review at the Cato Institute
  • “Whither the Canaries?” Julie Nice, Herbst Foundation Professor of Law at University of San Francisco School of Law
  • “Constitutional Essentials” Frank Michelman, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School
  • “Implicit Bias: Structural Racialization and a New Constitution” John Powell, director of Haas Diversity Research Center and Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, University of California, Berkeley
  • “State Constitutions and Poverty” James Gardner, vice dean for academic affairs and Joseph W. Belluck and Laura L. Aswad SUNY Distinguished Professor of Civil Justice at SUNY Buffalo Law School, State University of New York

The symposium, made possible by support from Belin McCormick, PC, is scheduled to conclude at approximately 12:30 p.m. Free parking is available in Lot 1 at 25th Street and Carpenter Ave. For more information about the event and speakers, visit the symposium’s website.

Congress created the Constitutional Law Center in 1987 to commemorate the bicentennial of the Constitution. Drake Law School is one of only four law schools designated by statute to receive a permanent endowment “to encourage graduate study of the American Constitution, its roots, its formation, its principles and its development.”

For more information about the symposium, contact Theresa Howard at 515-271-2988, or visit the event page.