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Wednesday, November 9, 2022
5:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. | Presentation of 4 cases & Panel Discussion
7:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. | Cocktail Reception

This program will be held:
In-Person at Fordham Law School
Costantino Room (2nd Floor)
150 West 62nd Street, New York, NY

Panelists
 
Judge Denny Chin ’78
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Thomas Lee
Leitner Family Professor of International Law

Erika L. Moritsugu 
Deputy Assistant to the President and Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Senior Liaison

Quyen L. Ta
Partner, King & Spalding LLP

John C. Yang
President and Executive Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice

Program Description

In the aftermath of the Civil War, Congress enacted statutes to empower individuals to sue state and local officials and certain private actors who violated their constitutional and civil rights directly in federal courts.

Chinese individuals of limited means—including laborers, laundrymen, and storekeepers victimized by rampant anti-Asian violence and discrimination—were among the first to sue in federal courts and achieved some surprising successes by advancing creative legal theories.  How and why did Asian Americans bring these early civil rights lawsuits? Why has this history been mostly “lost” to legal scholars and the general public? What are the lessons for today, when Asian Americans face renewed acts of pandemic-fueled violence and discrimination?  

In this two-part program, Judge Denny Chin and Professor Thomas Lee will review four early path-breaking civil rights cases brought in the late nineteenth century, and a distinguished panel of civil rights leaders and advocates will assess anti-Asian hostility today and their view of the path forward.
 
CLE credit for this program is approved in accordance with the requirements of the New York State CLE Board for a maximum of 1.5 transitional and nontransitional professional practice credit.