Civil rights advocate, author, and constitutional law scholar Rebecca Zietlow will lead a Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at Vermont Law School with “Enforcing Equality,” a discussion of politics and law in the enforcement of civil rights. The celebration and Zietlow’s talk, open to the public and press, will take place from 12:45 to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, in Chase Community Center at VLS.
Zietlow’s talk will draw on her critically acclaimed books. The first, “Enforcing Equality: Congress, the Constitution and the Protection of Individual Rights” (NYU Press, 2006), studies the history of congressional protection of rights and the implications of that history for constitutional theory. And her most recent, “The Forgotten Emancipator: James Mitchell Ashley and the Ideological Origins of Reconstruction” (Cambridge University Press, 2017), discusses the egalitarian free labor vision that animated the early Reconstruction Congress and the 13th Amendment.
“The enforcement of civil rights is vital to achieving equality,” said Shirley Jefferson JD’86, associate dean for student affairs and diversity. “We invite our neighbors to join us at Vermont Law School as we celebrate Dr. King’s legacy and gain a better understanding of how our civil rights are enforced in the United States. Professor Zietlow’s talk will draw on history, law, and current politics. We look forward to hearing her speak.”
Zietlow is a visiting professor at VLS and Charles W. Fornoff Professor of Law and Values at the University of Toledo College of Law. Her areas of specialty are constitutional law, federal courts, constitutional litigation, and women and the law. She received her bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and her juris doctor from Yale Law School. In 2012, she received the University of Toledo Outstanding Faculty Research Award. Her scholarly interest is in the study of the Reconstruction Era, including the meaning and history of the 13th and 14th Amendments. Zietlow is also an expert on constitutional theory, examining constitutional interpretation outside of the courts. Her work has been published in the Columbia Law Review, Boston University Law Review, Ohio State Law Journal, Florida Law Review, the Wake Forest Law Journal, and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, among other publications.
For more information about the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at Vermont Law School, or about student affairs and diversity at VLS, email Associate Dean Shirley Jefferson at sjefferson@vermontlaw.edu, or call 802-831-1238. For more information about news and events at VLS, visit vermontlaw.edu/news-and-events.
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