The College of Staten Island Legal Studies Institute’s Annual Lecture in Law, Philosophy, and Public Policy will take place on September 15, 2016. The lecture, “The Abortion Controversy and the Court: From Casey (1992) to Whole Women’s Health (2016),” will be held in Williamson Theatre in the Center for the Arts (Building 1P) at 5:00pm.

The Keynote speaker will be Professor Reva Siegel, Nicholas deB. Katzenbach Professor of Law at the Yale Law School.

“Given the Supreme Court’s landmark decision this year in Whole Woman’s Health, the topic and timing of our lecture could not be better,” noted Michael Paris, Associate Professor and Pre-Law Advisor in the Department of Political Science. Professor Paris is moderating the event.

“With this lecture,” Paris said, “we bring to our campus one of the nation’s leading legal scholars writing today about law, politics, and reproductive freedom.”

Professor Siegel’s writing draws on legal history to explore questions of law and inequality and to analyze how courts interact with representative government and popular movements in interpreting the Constitution.

Professor Reva Siegel

Her recent articles include “Casey and The Clinic Closings: When ‘Protecting Health’ Obstructs Choice, 125 Yale L.J. 1428 (2016) (with Linda Greenhouse) and “Conscience Wars: Complicity-based Conscience Claims in Religion and Politics,” 124 Yale L.J. (2015) (with Doug NeJaime).

Her books include Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking (with Paul Brest, Sanford Levinson, Jack M. Balkin, and Akhil Reed Amar, 2014), Before Roe v. Wade: Voices That Shaped the Abortion Debate before the Supreme Court’s Ruling (with Linda Greenhouse, 2012), and The Constitution in 2020 (edited with Jack M. Balkin, 2009).

Professor Siegel is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an honorary fellow of the American Society for Legal History, and serves on the board of the American Constitution Society and on the General Council of the International Society of Public Law.​

“It is an honor to have Professor Siegel speak at what is to be a very compelling lecture. I am sure that the CSI community will gain some interesting knowledge and new perspective on this controversial issue,” said Professor Richard Flanagan, Chair of the Department of Political Science.

This event is co-sponsored by the CSI Legal Studies Institute, the CORE Program, the Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities, the CSI Student Government Association, the CSI Foundation, the CSI Campus Activities Board, and the Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

The lecture is free and open to all faculty, staff, and students. A reception will follow in the West Lounge.