Evolving Doctrine Lecture Series

"Constitutional Change in the 20^th & 21^st Centuries"

Amanda Shanor’s research explores the changing meaning of the First Amendment and the forces that affect it; democratic theory, illiberalism, and equality, and the intersection of constitutional law and economic life. Prior to joining the academy, Shanor was a practicing lawyer in the National Legal Department of the American Civil Liberties Union who worked on the organization’s Supreme Court litigation and national strategy, including Masterpiece Cakeshop. Shanor previously litigated constitutional and national security cases, including Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder.

Shanor’s scholarship has been published or is forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review, the New York University Law Review, the Northwestern University Law Review, the UCLA Law Review, the Emory Law Review, the Wisconsin Law Review, the Harvard Law Review Forum, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among others. Shanor is a regular contributor to legal blogs, including SCOTUSBlog. Shanor teaches first-year constitutional law at Penn Law. While an academic, Shanor has continued to litigate, file amicus briefs, and advise and moot advocates on speech, equality, separation of powers, and other constitutional issues.

Shanor is a graduate of Yale Law School and Yale College and holds a PhD in law from Yale University. Shanor served as a law clerk to Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard and Judith W. Rogers on the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Robert W. Sweet in the Southern District of New York.

"The Law of the Immigration Raid"

Jennifer M. Chacón is the Bruce Tyson Mitchell Professor of Law at Stanford Law School. She researches issues that arise at the nexus of immigration law, constitutional law, and criminal law and procedure. Her writings elucidate how legal frameworks on immigration and law enforcement shape individual and collective understandings of racial and ethnic identity, citizenship, civic engagement, and social belonging. She is the co-author of the immigration law textbook Immigration Law and Social Justice, now in its second edition, and the co-author of Legal Phantoms (Stanford University Press, 2024), which explores how the past decade’s shifting immigration policies have shaped, and been shaped by, immigrant communities and organizations in Southern California. She has written dozens of articles, book chapters, and essays on immigration, criminal law, constitutional law, and citizenship issues. Her research has been funded by the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the University of California.

Professor Chacón is a past Chair of the American Association of Law School’s Section on Immigration, and of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Rules Committee. She is a member of the American Law Institute, and is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation (ABF). She is a member of the ABF’s Fellows Research Advisory Committee and the Latina Lawyers Bar Association Advisory Board. She has also served on the Advisory Committee of the ABF’s “Future of Latinos in the U.S.” project, the ABF’s Board of Directors, and the University of Oxford Border Criminologies Advisory Group. She was a co-convenor of the Immigration Policy Advisory Committee to then-Senator Barack Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign, and an outside advisor to the Immigration Transition Team of President-Elect Barack Obama from November 2008 through January 2009.

Professor Chacón earned her A.B. with distinction from Stanford University and her J.D. from Yale Law School.

"Taking Victims Seriously: Abolitionism, Criminal Law Minimalism, Equality and Punishment"

Ekow N. Yankah's work focuses on questions of political and criminal theory and, particularly, questions of political obligation and justifications of punishment. His work has appeared in law review articles, peer reviewed legal theory journals, books, and medical journals, including NOMOS, Ratio Juris, Law and Philosophy, Criminal Law and Philosophy, Stanford Law Review, Texas Law Review, and the Harvard Law & Policy Review, among others.

Professor Yankah’s interests have also led him to develop expertise in voting rights and election law. He served for years as the co-chair of the New York Democratic Lawyers Council (NYDLC), the voting rights arm of the New York State Democratic Committee and the coordinating arm of the DNC. In 2020, the NYDLC honored him with the Guardian of Democracy Award. That year, he was appointed to the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board, which he served as chairman for nearly three years. He also sits on multiple nonprofit and start-up boards, including the Innocence Project, where he was recognized as an Advocate for Justice in 2017.

Professor Yankah is a graduate of the University of Michigan, holds his J.D. from Columbia University, and a BCL from Oxford University.