| American Constitution Society for Law and Policy | |
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The American Constitution Society Logo |
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| Type | Legal |
| Purpose/focus | The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) promotes the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and the fundamental values it expresses: individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law. [1] |
| Location | Washington, DC |
| Executive Director | Caroline Fredrickson |
| Website | acslaw.org |
The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) is a progressive legal organization that promotes the U.S. Constitutional values of "individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law." [2] The American Bar Association Journal described it as "the left-leaning equivalent of the Federalist Society."[3] For example, they have challenged the "originalism" interpretation of the Constitution.[4]ACS was formed in 2001 at Georgetown Law Center by then-law professor Peter J. Rubin.
ACS has 13,000 members, 165 student chapters and lawyer chapters in 32 cities. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C. The organization promotes and facilitates discussion and debate of progressive public policy ideas and issues, providing forums for legal scholars, lawmakers, judges, lawyers, public policy advocates, law students and members of the media.
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ACS hosts press and Capitol Hill briefings and public policy debates as well as an annual convention where experts, both conservative and progressive, debate and discuss an array of legal and public policy issues. The annual conference draws lawyers, judges, elected officials, academics, public interest activists and students. Speakers at ACS events have included U.S. Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia, Vice President Joe Biden, former Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Senators Russ Feingold, Amy Klobuchar, Patrick Leahy, Charles Schumer the late Paul Wellstone, and Sheldon Whitehouse, U.S. Representatives Tammy Baldwin, Artur Davis, Barney Frank, Diana DeGette, Jesse Jackson, Jr., and John Lewis, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Janet Reno and Attorney General Eric Holder, former Solicitors General Paul D. Clement, Walter E. Dellinger, Drew S. Days and Seth P. Waxman, and White House Counsel Greg Craig.
The organization fosters debate and discussion about legal and justice policy issues through the dissemination of ACS Issue Briefs, the ACSBlog, The Harvard Law & Policy Review (HLPR), which serves as the official journal of ACS, and Advance: The Journal of the ACS Issue Groups.
In 2009, ACS published Keeping Faith with the Constitution by Pamela S. Karlan, Goodwin Liu and Christopher H. Schroeder.[5] Keeping Faith examines the text and history of the Constitution revealing how the nation's framers inscribed the fundamental values of liberty, equality and democracy into the document.
In 2010, Oxford University Press published an updated version of Keeping Faith as part of its acclaimed Inalienable Rights series.[6]