Scholarship of W&L Law’s Hasbrouck Cited in Federal Court Opinion Judge Carlton Reeves of the U.S. District for the Southern District of Mississippi cited Hasbrouck's article "The Antiracist Constitution."

By Law Communications
March 24, 2023

The Hon. Carlton Reeves, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Mississippi, cited the scholarship of W&L Law professor Brandon Hasbrouck in a recent opinion involving lead-tainted water in the City of Jackson.

In the case, Judge Reeves ruled that the plaintiffs lawsuit against the city could proceed, due in part to a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause and the “right of bodily integrity.” Judge Reeves drew on analysis from Hasbrouck’s article, “The Antiracist Constitution,” which discusses the Due Process Clause’s role in extending the Bill of Rights.

Hasbrouck published “The Antiracist Constitution” in the Boston University Law Review in 2022. In the article, he argues that Congress and the courts can, and should, apply the Constitution as it was written and intended—to promote an antiracist vision of America—and explores what an antiracist Constitution would look like in practice.

“The resulting framework demonstrates the doctrinal puissance of abolition constitutionalism. Where progressive constitutionalism often struggles to justify the rights-affirming results of the Warren Court and Roe v. Wade while excluding the possibility of a return to the Lochner era, abolition constitutionalism provides a robust basis to support civil rights, including reproductive rights, while rejecting the primacy of freedom of contract,” Hasbrouck writes.

The article is available online at the Boston University Law Review website.

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