National Issues

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt served as First Lady from 1933 – 1945. She was also a politician, diplomat and activist. The first of two lectures Roosevelt presented here, in 1954, was titled, “The United Nations: Our Strongest Ally.”

This discussion focused on the topics of voting rights and the threats facing American democracy and featured former U.S. congressmen Russ Carnahan, a Democrat from St. Louis, and Tom Coleman, a Republican from Kansas City.

Georgetown Law Professor Kristin Henning joined Daniel Harawa (WashU Law) to discuss her new book, Rage of Innocence: How America Criminalizes Black Youth.

Distinguished political theorist, Danielle Allen, gave a presentation that challenged common assumptions about both the founding of the United States and the implications of the Declaration of Independence.

In a session titled “Inclusive Growth in St. Louis: Embracing Inclusive Leadership,” a panel of experts from different sectors discussed strategies to create inclusive and meaningful leadership.

This two-part discussion, titled “Creating Inclusive Access to Education, Training & Technology,” featured leaders from various sectors addressing how to create more equitable access to education, training and technology in our community.

Americans today are deeply divided. Religion has played a crucial role in promoting conflict and polarization, yet religious communities are an essential part of bridging current social and political divides. This panel of religious leaders and experts explored ways that religious communities might become spaces that bridge divides, rather than make them deeper — bridge building that is located in a larger sense of civic engagement and community.

The Quran is one of the most iconic objects in American debates about racial and religious tolerance. Is the Quran a “good book”? Is it like the Bible and other scriptures? Or is its message more violent, more misogynistic, more intolerant? Or is the danger in the power readers ascribe to the book?

Stokes presented a public lecture entitled, “Is ‘Direct Democracy’ Good for Democracy? The Logic(s) of Referendums.” Stokes is the Faculty Chair of the Chicago Center on Democracy, where she guides the strategy and direction of the center.

People of faith in the U.S. today are as politically polarized as other Americans, prompting painful breakdowns in personal relationships and communities. What would it take to accept responsibility for actively healing these political and religious divisions, activating solutions rather than continuing assaults?

Smith, noted criminal defense attorney and professor of law at Georgetown University, discussed her new book, Guilty People.

Hubbard presented the Murray Weidenbaum Tribute Lecture: ‘After the Election: Recovery, Reform and Renewal.’

This Interfaith Week discussion titled “Faith in the Fight: Organizing Interfaith & Secular Coalitions for Racial Equity & Justice.”

The 2019 Holocaust Memorial Lecture featured a presentation by Jason De León, professor of anthropology at UCLA, entitled ‘Understanding the Current Politics of Migrant Life andDeath along the U.S.-Mexico Border.’ De León uses ethnographic analysis, forensic science and archaeological research to study the lives and deaths of migrants in the Sonoran Desert.

Michelle Oberman, the Katharine and George Alexander Professor of Law at Santa Clara University, presented on the battle over abortion law.

The Nov. 10, 2019 finale of the Blacks in America: 400 Years Plus trilogy, featured Karine Jean-Pierre, NBC and MSNBC Political Analyst. This event, a University Libraries’ Mary Curtis Horowitz Lecture for Civic Engagement and Social Policy, was part of a three-part trilogy to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Africans in the United States.

Eddie Glaude, theJames S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and frequent MSNBC contributor, offered reflections on difficult truths about race and the moral crisis at the heart of American democracy.

The Me Too movement has brought a long-needed course correction to sexual harassment, sexual intimidation, and workplace sexual abuse. In this lecture, Dr. Pepper Schwartz discussed the chronology of events to understand why this has happened and examined policy dilemmas of competing values about due process, victim protection, offender punishments, and differing approaches within and outside of feminism.

Dan Tokaji, associate dean and the Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Professor of Constitutional Law at Ohio State University, discussed‘Voting Rights, Gerrymandering, and the Uncertain Future of Democracy

For nearly a decade, it has been an annual tradition to celebrate Constitution Day at Washington University School of Law with a U.S. Supreme Court review examining some of the major cases from the Court’s last term and providing commentary on the nature of what is happening on the Court today as well as what lies ahead.

Gardner was elected St. Louis Circuit Attorney in 2017, after serving as a Missouri House Representative from the 77th District. She received national attention last year for her role inpursuing the investigation into alleged unlawful activities by Missouri governor Eric Greitens, leading to his resignation.

Ferguson Councilman Wesley Bell’s recent upset of Robert McCulloch’s 28-year-run as St. Louis County Prosecutor was a stunning victory for the underdog running on a platform to reform its criminal justice system.

Throughout her long tenure in the Jackson County prosecutor’s office, Baker has served in nearly every unit. In 2012 she was elected as its leader.

A brief rundown of Adam Foss’s early years shows a trajectory that aligns with his choices as an adult: Born in Columbia and adopted by an Irish-American family from Massachusetts; experienced childhood as one of color in a small town; arrested at age 19 for marijuana possession but got off easy because his father was a white police officer; was a first-generation college student; took a class on restorative justice which inspired him to seek a law degree; interned at a small municipal court in an impoverished and dangerous Boston neighborhood.

Through his several books on the growth, preparation and consumption of food, Michael Pollan has shown us the way toward food enlightenment. Now with his 8th book, he is leading us on another enlightened journey, one that holds the promise of peace of mind for millions suffering from serious mental disorders such as PTSD.

The historian Crystal Feimster will deliver the annual Holocaust Memorial Lecture.

Norman Ornstein is an American Enterprise Institute scholar and keen observer of the American political system. In his last two books, co-authored with Thomas Mann, Ornstein takes us on a historical journey to identify the roots of decline in the quality of Congressional governance, illustrates how the “politics of extremism” was born and how its growth was allowed to continue unfettered for decades until it created the political environment ripe for producing a president like no other.

A former major in the United States Army Reserve (IRR) French was deployed to Iraq and served in Diyala Province as Squadron Judge Advocate for the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, where he was awarded the Bronze Star.

Washington University’s School of Law will host a visit by former Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, on Monday, Feb. 27 that includes an Assembly Series presentation at 3 p.m. in Graham Chapel.

Whenever some violent lunatic snaps and claims some kind of warped justification for his murderous acts as a so-called Muslim warrior, it’s not his damaged childhood or the flood of assault weapons in America or the climate of unrelenting violence in our country that gets blamed – it’s Islam, an ancient, Abrahamic religion.” — Arsalan Iftikhar

Stevens objected to the court’s ruling in the 2000 election-deciding case of Bush v. Gore. The court overturned the Florida Supreme Court’s decision to order a recount of all of the state’s ballots. Joined by David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, Stevens wrote that, “Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law. I respectfully dissent.”

Jack Devine’s talk,”The Importance and Ethics of National Intelligence,” held on September 16, 2014, served as the annual Elliot Stein Lecture. During his 30-year tenure as the CIA’s acting director of operations, Devine served as America’s top spymaster for eight presidents.

On October 10, 2014 Carl Hart, neuropsychopharamacologist at Columbia University, delivered the annual Chancellor’s Fellows Lecture on “Demystifying the Science of Drug Addiction: Neuroscience, Self-discovery, Race and U.S. Drug Policy.”

On April 14, 2015 at 5 p.m. in Umrath Hall Lounge, veteran journalist Carla Power talked about “Reading the Quran at Starbucks: An American Secular Feminist and a Traditional Muslim Scholar Find Commonalities.”

On November 14, 2013 at 12 p.m. in the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom, Catharine MacKinnon, a principal architect of landmark sex equality laws in the United States, talked about “Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality.”

In a career spanning four decades, campaign strategist David Axelrod has influenced the outcomes of more than 150 Democratic campaigns, many of which were considered landmark victories. But in 2008 he orchestrated his most historic campaign, helping elect the first African-American as the 44th president of the United States. His address, part of the SU Speaker Series sponsored by the Washington University Political Review, is titled “America’s Future: Insights from a Presidential Adviser.”

As a sophomore at WashU, he served as Speaker of the Congress of the South 40. For the Assembly Series, he will share how his experiences as a student helped prepare him for a career in politics, then invite the audience to engage in a dialogue.

On October 4, 2013 at 6 p.m. in Brown Hall, Jonathan Gruber, Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist and renowned health care expert, talked about “Health-care Reform: What It Is, Why It’s Necessary, How It Works.”

On February 3, 2015 at 6 p.m. in the Graham Chapel, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Residential Learning, Jill Stratton moderated a discussion on “Marriage Equality and the GOP” by a panel featuring Meghan McCain, Gregory T. Angelo and Fred Karger.

On February 29, 2012 James Boyle, the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Law and co-founder of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School talked about “Cultural Agoraphobia: Why Most of What You Know About the Internet is Wrong.”

On February 17, 2015 at 6 p.m. in Graham Chapel, Reza Aslan, delivered the Washington University Foreign Policy Engagement Lecture on faith, extremism and democracy.

On September 17, 2014 at 2 PM at the Bryan Cave Moot Courtroom in Anheuser-Busch Hall, Sherrilyn Ifill talked about the legacy of the Supreme Court’s 1954 decision in Brown v the Board of Education and discussed how this relates to the still-present socioeconomic issues underpinning African-Americans’ anger and frustration that have surfaced in Ferguson, MO.

On February 18, 2015 at 7 p.m. in Graham Chapel, Ta-Nehisi Coates, senior editor for The Atlantic and well-known author, spoke on the subject of racism in the United States as part of the Washington University Political Review Lecture.

When he came to campus in 1984, the Democratic presidential candidate Walter “Fritz” Mondale was greeted by cheering students, and especially by WashU’s female students: Mondale chose the first woman, Geraldine Ferraro, as his running mate, and supported the Equal Rights Amendment.

On January 22, 2015 at 12 p.m. in the Brown Hall Lounge, Xavier de Souza Briggs, vice president of the Ford Foundation’s Economic Opportunity and Assets program talked about “Toward a Just and Inclusive America.”

On September 8, 2014 Kenji Yoshino, Professor of Law at NYU talked about his new book – Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights. In his book Yoshino provides readers plenty to consider about the act of “covering,” why it’s done and how it harms people’s individuality.