Judge Theodore McKee of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit joins the National Constitution Center for an online discussion on policing and the Constitution. Then, Monica Bell of Yale Law School, David French of The Dispatch, Janai Nelson of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and Theodore Shaw of the University of North Carolina School of Law join for wide-ranging discussion on qualified immunity for police officers, the history of policing and protest, and the future of the American idea. Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, moderates.
Participants
Keynote Conversation
- Theodore McKee has been a judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit since 1994 and served as chief judge from May 2010 to October 2016. Before being appointed to the federal bench he was a state trial judge. During that time, he chaired the Pennsylvania Sentencing Commission. He has also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Deputy City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia. In addition to his judicial duties, he currently serves on several nonprofit boards, and is an elected member of the American Law Institute where he serves as an Adviser on ALI's project to revise the Sentencing provisions of the Model Penal Code.<
- Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Panel Discussion
- Monica Bell is an Associate Professor of Law at Yale Law School and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Yale University. She has published academic work in The Yale Law Journal, Law & Society Review, Social Service Review, and the Annual Review of Law & Social Science. She has also written for popular outlets such as the Los Angeles Review of Books and the Washington Post. Before joining the Yale Law School faculty, she was a Climenko Fellow & Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School and has previously served as a Liman Fellow at the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia.
- David French is a senior editor for The Dispatch, where he also co-hosts the weekly podcast Advisory Opinions. In addition, he is a columnist for Time, and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute. French is the author or co-author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller of Rise of ISIS: A Threat We Can’t Ignore. David has previously served as a senior writer for the National Review, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a lecturer at Cornell Law School, and as a senior counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice and the Alliance Defending Freedom.
- Janai Nelson is Associate Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where she is also a member of LDF’s litigation and policy teams and has served as interim director of LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute. Prior to joining LDF, Janai was Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship and Associate Director of the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John’s University School of Law where she was also a full professor of law. She has also served as a Fulbright Scholar at the Legal Resources Center in Accra, Ghana and the Director of LDF’s Political Participation Group. Nelson is a regular contributor to popular outlets such as Reuters and the HuffPost.
- Theodore Shaw is the Julius L. Chambers Distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Civil Rights at the University of North Carolina School of Law. Shaw has published many book chapters, articles and essays on civil rights, including the introduction to The Ferguson Report: United States Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. Shaw previously practiced as a Trial Attorney in the Honors Program of the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C. Shaw later worked for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund for over 26 years. There he litigated cases related education, housing, voting rights and capital punishment. He would eventually go on to become its fifth Director-Counsel.
- Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Resources Cited During the Program
Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America
42 U.S. Code § 1983. Civil action for deprivation of rights
Senate Resolution to Abolish Qualified Immunity for Law Enforcement
Monica Bell, "Police Reform and the Dismantling of Legal Estrangement"
Associated Press, "Pentagon-Trump clash breaks open over military and protests"
Sherrilyn Ifill, Slate, "How to Change Policing in America"
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