The University of New Mexico School of Law will bring a leading constitutional law scholar to campus to talk on the future of the US Supreme Court.
The school will host the U.S. Senator Dennis Chavez Endowed Lectureship on Law and Civil Rights. It features Stephen I. Vladeck, the nation’s recognized scholar on federal courts, constitutional law, and national security.
Vladeck is Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at Georgetown University Law Center. He is the author of The Shadow Docket, which offers a closer look at the US Supreme Court’s emergency decision-making process.
Vladeck has argued cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and federal appellate courts. He is a legal analyst in national media. His lecture, titled “The Court We Need: Why the Supreme Court is Worth Saving, Especially from Itself,” will discuss relevant questions such as judicial power, institutional legitimacy, and constitutional governance.
The event begins at 5 pm, followed by the lecture at 5:30 pm at the UNM School of Law Forum. It is open to the public and offers 1.5 general continuing legal education credits.
The annual lectureship is in honor of Dennis Chavez, a native of New Mexico. From humble beginnings in Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood, he rose to become the only Hispanic US senator when he began public service in 1935. Chavez was a champion of civil and human rights, conservation efforts, rural electrification, and protections for Indigenous communities in the Senate for nearly 30 years.
The lectureship, established in his name, brings prominent voices in law and public service to UNM every year. It has become an avenue for public dialogue on civil rights, democracy, and the role of the courts.