University of Arizona Law’s ACS Student Chapter Selected as ACS National’s Student Chapter of the Week
University of Arizona Law would like to congratulate the college’s American Constitution Society (ACS) Student Chapter on being selected as ACS National’s Student Chapter of the Week for the week of March 29, 2021. The ACS Chapters Team recognizes a different student chapter for its efforts each week during the academic year.
The Arizona Law ACS Student Chapter works to ensure that the law is a force for protecting our democracy and for improving people’s lives while connecting students to the national ACS network.
“It is such an honor to receive this distinction from National ACS because it shows that we’re making an impact and hopefully a difference. Our chapter is working with others to build and lead a diverse legal community dedicated to advancing and defending democracy, justice, equality, and liberty. Through co-sponsorships with student organizations and affinity groups within our Arizona Law community as well as with fellow ACS student chapters, we set forth a model of cooperative national engagement and impact,” said Julia Aguilera, president of Arizona Law’s ACS Student Chapter. “The Student Chapter of the Week Award is reflective of the work we have done so far and representative of the fruitful future to come.”
The Arizona Law Chapter has created a platform to discuss current political topics including voter empowerment, early voting, and Arizona’s election infrastructure with events like “Power to the Polls” in partnership with All Voting is Local, an organization working to remove discriminatory barriers to the ballot.
At their past event, “Threats to American Democracy,” Professor Michael Klarman of Harvard Law School, and Linda Greenhouse, Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times Supreme Court reporter and Yale Senior Research Scholar, discussed the threats posed to American democracy from a range of socio-political developments, the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in these developments, and how to better protect democracy from these perils. The discussion was attended by over 400 registrants and was co-sponsored by other student ACS chapters, setting forth a model of cooperative national engagement and impact.
Arizona Law ACS Student Chapter events include co-sponsored events with the Arizona Law Black Law Students Association on a discussion about qualified immunity and a co-sponsored event with the Native American Law Students Association and Arizona Law’s Diversity Committee on athe significance of allyship in minority communities within the Arizona Law community.
“I would like to thank David Herrera, who led the reconstitution of our chapter; Dean Toni Massaro for her prior leadership and inspiration; and our current co-faculty advisors, Professors Christopher Griffin and Roy Spece, for their continued support and guidance,” said Aguilera.
The American Constitution Society is the nation’s leading progressive legal organization, with approximately 200 student and lawyer chapters in almost every state and law school. Through a diverse nationwide network of progressive lawyers, law students, judges, scholars and many others, ACS works to uphold the Constitution in the 21st Century by ensuring that law is a force for protecting our democracy and the public interest and for improving people’s lives. ACS chapters hold over 1,400 public programs across the country each year, generating “intellectual capital” for ready use by progressive allies and shaping debates on key legal and public policy issues.