Sentencing and Immigration among Topics for W&L Law MLK Day Observance
Washington and Lee University School of Law will hold a number of activities on Monday, January 19 in celebration of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Events include panels exploring issues related to sentencing and immigration policy and an address by Harvard professor Kenneth Mack.
Mack is the inaugural Lawrence D. Biele Professor of Law at Harvard University and the co-faculty leader of the Harvard Law School Program on Law and History. His research and writing have focused on the legal and constitutional history of American race relations. His 2012 book “Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer” (Harvard UP) was selected as a Top 50 Non-fiction Book of the Year by the Washington Post, was awarded honorable mention for the J. Willard Hurst Award by the Law and Society Association, and was a finalist for the Julia Ward Howe Book Award.
During W&L’s MLK event, Mack will deliver a talk titled – “Rethinking the Role of Law in the Civil Rights Movement.” He will speak at 4:00 p.m. in the Millhiser Moot Court Room, Sydney Lewis Hall. Preceding Mack’s talk are two panel discussions, both in the Millhiser Moot Court Room.
Beginning at 1 p.m., W&L Law professor Jon Shapiro will moderate at panel on sentencing and race. He will be joined by Margareth Etienne, Professor and Nancy Snowden Research Scholar in Law, University of Illinois College of Law; Michael Nachmanoff, Federal Public Defender and United States Magistrate Judge (Designate) ; and Wornie Reed, Professor and Director, Race and Social Policy Center, Virginia Tech.
This session will be followed by a panel at 2:30 p.m. on immigration and civil rights, moderated by W&L Law professor and Immigrant Rights Clinic director David Baluarte. Participants include Mary Bauer, Executive Director, Legal Aid Justice Center; Claudia Cubas, Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights (CAIR) Coalition; and Joseph Montano, American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.
In addition to the law school events, Washington and Lee University has a full slate of activities planned to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King, Jr, including a keynote address by NAACP chairman Roslyn McCallister Brock. The complete schedule of events for Washington and Lee’s annual “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.” are available at http://go.wlu.edu/MLK-15.
