UVA Law is home to outstanding scholars of civil rights and civil liberties. Their expertise spans the equal protection clause in the 14th Amendment, civil rights statutes, the religion clauses and the speech and press clauses of the First Amendment, and more. Disputes over equality and discrimination continue to reverberate in legislatures and courts nationwide. The freedom of speech has become an ever more important and contested right within our society, and the religion clauses have become an active and controversial area in Supreme Court jurisprudence. Scholars at the Law School are at the forefront of all of these debates, in law reviews and philosophical journals, as well as in courthouses and the public square.
Professor Leslie Kendrick ’06 discusses First Amendment policies, and the law and norms of free speech in the law school education process. She spoke as part of the Class of 2026 orientation.
Universities are facing an unprecedented wave of claims that they have violated their obligations to Jewish students under Title VI of the 1964 Civil...
Universities are facing an unprecedented wave of claims that they have violated their obligations to Jewish students under Title VI of the 1964 Civil...
Over the last decade, the Supreme Court has revolutionized the law of religious freedom. At this point, the picture is reasonably clear. The Court has...
Content moderation is typically viewed as an affront to free expression. When companies remove online abuse, they face accusations of censorship. Lost...
Fifty years ago, federal and state lawmakers called for the regulation of a criminal justice “databank” connecting federal, state, and local agencies...
In Matter of Giuliani, the New York Appellate Division held that Rudy Giuliani’s knowingly false statements of fact during the period after the 2020...
This amicus curiae brief was filed 12 June 2024 in the Indiana Supreme Court on behalf of Professors Caroline Corbin, B. Jessie Hill, Elizabeth Sepper...
Religion today offers plaintiffs a ready path to disobey laws without consequence. Examples of such disobedience abound. In the past few years alone...
A robust public debate is currently underway about the responsibility of online platforms. We have long called for this discussion, but only recently...
Catholic integralism has reemerged as a radical critique of liberalism and as a potential source of justification for illiberal regimes. Integralists...
Numbers in parentheses indicate the academic year(s) courses were offered: 2023-24 is coded (24), 2024-25 is coded (25) and 2025-26 is coded (26).
Advanced Topics in the First Amendment (Religion Clauses) (25) Civil Rights and Antidiscrimination Law (25) Civil Rights Litigation (24,25,26) Comparative Constitutional Law (24,25,26) Comparative Freedom of Speech (25) Comparative Freedom of Speech Law Seminar (24) Constitutionalism: Nature, Culture and Constitutions (24) Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Religion (25,26) Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Speech and Press (24) Constitutional Law II: Religious Liberty (24) Constitutional Law II: Survey of Civil Liberties (24,26) Designing Democracy: Representation (24) Government Secrecy (24) Law and Inequality Colloquium (24,25) Law and Riots (24,25,26) Law of the Police I: Rules, Rights and Regulation (25) Law, Inequality and Education Reform (25,26) Monetary Constitution Seminar (24,25,26) Online Privacy, Freedom of Speech and Platform Regulation in Europe (SC) (26) Pretrial Litigation Skills: Civil Rights (24) Privacy (24,25,26) Privacy Law and Theory Seminar (24,25,26) Privacy Torts (24,25) Property, Police Power and Emergencies (24,25) Race, Class and Democratic Legitimacy (SC) (24) Race, Meritocracy and Justice on Campus (SC) (25) Racial Justice and Law (24,25,26) Regulation of Political Advocacy Seminar (24,25,26) Regulation of the Political Process (25,26) Religious Freedom and Reproductive Rights (24) Religious Freedom: Current Challenges (24) Rule of Law and its Threats (25) School Desegregation, School Integration (24) State and Local Government Law (24) State Constitutionalism (25) The Constitution, Democracy and U.S. History (25) The Great Writ (SC) (24,25) The Right to Protest (SC) (24)
Professor Xiao Wang of the University of Virginia School of Law has won an Association of American Law Schools award for his paper on the increase and success of religious freedom lawsuits.
George Washington University Law School professor Mary Anne Franks discusses her new book, “Fearless Speech: Breaking Free from the First Amendment.” Professor Danielle Citron provides commentary. The event was sponsored by the LawTech Center.
This yearlong clinic is supervised by lawyers at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and supported in part by a gift from the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. In the clinic, students work closely with RCFP lawyers on timely and vital matters involving free speech and press freedom. The support of the Thomas Jefferson Center and the partnership with RCFP enable students to gain practical legal experience on cutting-edge First Amendment issues. Students work as a team in conducting legal research, meeting with clients and co-counsel, and drafting legal memoranda and briefs. Assignments involve both appellate-level and trial-level litigation, but more frequently the former, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
This yearlong clinic allows 12 students to engage in the hands-on practice of appellate litigation through actual cases before various federal circuit and/or state courts of appeals. The students are teamed up and assigned to handle primary responsibility for work on at least one appellate case during the course of the year. In addition, the students work together as a small law firm to provide secondary-level assistance to each other.
Students work on cases that have potential to provide real and concrete relief and legal support to people and communities that have been harmed by the criminalization of poverty and other forms of discrimination or deprivation of rights.
Working in teams, students in this yearlong clinic handle actual cases, from seeking Supreme Court review to briefing on the merits. Students identify candidates for Supreme Court review; draft petitions for certiorari, amicus merits briefs and party merits briefs; and attend moots and Supreme Court arguments.
Justices resolved a split in how courts handle employment discrimination claims in a unanimous decision Thursday for the Supreme Court Litigation Clinic at the University of Virginia School of Law.
University of Minnesota law professor Jill Hasday discusses her award-winning book “We the Men: How Forgetting Women’s Struggles for Equality Perpetuates Inequality.” Professor Danielle Citron, co-director of the LawTech Center, introduced Hasday at the event.
The Education Rights Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, support that will help the institute expand its work to ensure all students have access to a high-quality education.
Clinics at the University of Virginia School of Law represented inmates seeking parole, helped tenants facing eviction and taught teens about state government, among other accomplishments in the past year.
The University of Virginia School of Law’s donor-funded grant program and the student-run PILA+ program are together giving over $1 million to 171 students working in public interest roles this summer.
University of Virginia School of Law professor Alice Abrokwa has won the 2026 John Hope Franklin Prize for her article examining the impact of the label “noncompliant” being disproportionately applied to Black patients in healthcare settings.
Jessica Lake, a senior lecturer at Melbourne Law School in Australia, discussed her latest book, “Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law.” Professor Danielle Citron, co-director of the LawTech Center, introduced Lake at the event.
Trial attorneys and experts examine how race affects civil jury trials, from jurors to the attorneys to judges, as well as how race influences mediations and negotiations. The discussion, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Law, is...
Chief Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn ’86 of the Supreme Court of Virginia speaks on the enduring legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement as part of UVA’s Community MLK Celebration. At the event, Dean Leslie Kendrick '06 presented the Gregory H. Swanson Award to Laura-Louise Rice ’25 and Shelby Singleton ’25. Professor Kimberly Jenkins Robinson introduced Goodwyn and Kendrick.
During his Constitutional Law course, UVA Law professor Bertrall Ross discusses the history of the 13th and 14th Amendments, the Dred Scott case and the Slaughter-House cases.
Experts increasingly use the language of medicine and disability to address social issues like poverty and racial discrimination. Professors Craig Konnoth of UVA Law and Karen M. Tani of Penn Law discuss how we got here.
The Education Rights Institute at the University of Virginia School of Law has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, support that will help the institute expand its work to ensure all students have access to a high-quality education.
Na’ilah Suad Nasir, president of the Spencer Foundation, delivers the keynote address at the launch of the Education Rights Institute, “Toward a High-Quality Education for All Students: Contemporary Questions for Law and Policy.” Dean Risa Goluboff, UVA President Jim Ryan ’92 and Education Rights Institute inaugural director Professor Kimberly Jenkins Robinson also deliver remarks.
Join ACS, BLSA, Professor Michael Gilbert and Melody Barnes, former director of the White House Domestic Policy Council under President Barack Obama and founding executive director of the Karsh Institute of Democracy, for a discussion about the future of voting rights after the Supreme Court’s decision in Callais, as well as Watson and NRSC. Food will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
The Innocence Project’s annual Wrongful Conviction Day will feature client Messiah Johnson, who was fully exonerated and compensated by the commonwealth of Virginia for his 20 years of wrongful conviction. Food will be provided.
The Federalist Society is kicking off its Spring Speaker Series with a fireside chat featuring UVA Law’s very own Professor Danielle Citron and Professor Jamil Jaffer, the founder of the National Security Institute at George Mason Law School. Join for a wide-ranging discussion of recent development in privacy law, moderated by Matthew Hamilton. A Q&A with audience members will follow the chat, and lunch will be provided.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Join the Federalist Society for a preview of the upcoming Supreme Court term. Institute for Justice attorneys, as well as chapter booster Professor Julia Mahoney, will look at the cases the court will consider and the cases they think the court should hear. They will also answer questions from attendees. Lunch will be served.
This event is sponsored by a student organization.
Kenneth L. Wainstein, under secretary for intelligence and analysis for the Department of Homeland Security, will discuss homeland security intelligence. The discussion, moderated by law professor Ashley Deeks, director of UVA’s National Security Law Center and a Miller Center faculty senior fellow, will cover election security as well as provide insights into this lesser known but vital player in the U.S. intelligence community.
Aimed at inspiring students and lawyers to promote justice through public service, the student-run conference will also feature an awards ceremony to honor Laurel Sakai ’11 and Anne Swerlick ’77 for their roles in serving the public.
Moderated by UVA Law professor Craig Konnoth, a panel of experts will discuss reconciling LGBTQ+ rights and religious freedom. The speakers are Christine Durham, senior of counsel for litigation, Wilson Sonsini, and former chief justice of the Utah Supreme Court; William Eskridge, John A. Garver Professor of Jurisprudence, Yale Law School; Ria Tabacco Mar, director of the ACLU’s Women’s Rights Project; and Robin Fretwell Wilson, director, Institute of Government and Public Affairs and Mildred Van Voorhis, Jones Chair in Law, Illinois College of Law.
Professor Julia Mahoney; Sherif Girgis, associate professor at Notre Dame Law School; and Denise Harle, senior counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom will speak on the U.S. Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.
Speaker Molly Conger, a local anti-racist activist and journalist, worked to uncover and publicize activities of white supremacists ahead of the Unite the Right rally. Her most recent work includes live-tweeting Sines v. Kessler. Food will be provided.
This conference marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX. Practitioners, scholars and other experts on Title IX will discuss current related issues, from sexual violence and abuses of power in higher education to access to sports for transgender students. Department of Education official Suzanne Goldberg will deliver the keynote address.
Sponsoring firms are Covington, Morgan Lewis, Thompson & Horton LLP, and Thompson Esquire.
Jessica Lake, a senior lecturer at Melbourne Law School in Australia, discussed her latest book, “Special Damage: The Slander of Women and the Gendered History of Defamation Law.” Professor Danielle Citron, co-director of the LawTech Center, introduced Lake at the event.
