As cases such as Brown v. Board of Education demonstrate, laws and legal debates affecting the entire nation arise from distinctive local settings. Renowned scholar Akhil Reed Amar sheds new light on America’s constitutional landscape by exploring how the nation’s legal tradition unites a vast and disparate land.
9–9:30 am: Registration and Continental Breakfast
9:30–11 am: Discussion
The 1993 landmark film Philadelphia seems at once historical and topical. One of the first mainstream films to tackle HIV/AIDS and homophobia, the film broke new ground. Yet defenders of California’s Proposition 8 invoked its success as evidence that gays no longer needed the courts’ protection. As the same-sex marriage issue moves toward the Supreme Court, the film invites a rich exploration of the interplay between art and politics.