National Issues

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.

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.

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."

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.'

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.