Georgetown University Capitol Campus
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This Supreme Court Term in Review will be an engaging discussion about the Supreme Court’s 2025-26 docket, which includes cases that that address voting rights, birthright citizenship, tariffs, racial justice, poverty, reproductive health access, freedom of speech and the press, and other matters that relate to social justice and inequality in society. Panelists include journalists and civil society leaders who will provide an overview of the key cases of the term, discuss whether the cases create changes in American jurisprudence, and if so how, and analyze how the Court’s rulings will affect the rule of law, authority of the executive, separation of powers, reproductive health, rights, and justice, voting rights, the administrative state and more.
Panelists will discuss:
- Birthright Citizenship
- The Voting Rights Act
- First Amendment expression
- Protection for LGBTQ Rights
- Criminal Justice
- Access to reproductive healthcare and abortion
- The president’s ability to terminate Federal Reserve Board Governors
- Where to draw the line between political and racial gerrymandering
- Tariffs
The Rule of Law in the Trump Era
In this panel, participants will consider democracy, separation of powers, and the rule of law, during the Trump Administration. The panel will address the executive orders that define the Trump Administration as well as the litigation that has followed. Specifically, given the widespread executive orders and broad changes in policy, more than 750 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump Administration. The challenges–as with the executive orders–are expansive in scope and scale, ranging from sex, gender, and “DEI,” to the Alien Enemies Act, firings of government workers and officials, birthright citizenship, efforts to dismantle agencies, gutting programs, funding cuts, mass deportations, immigration, trans rights, and tariffs, among others. According to the New York Times, in more than 150 cases, federal courts have blocked the administration’s policies through preliminary injunctions or temporary restraining orders. At least thirty of these cases have reached the Supreme Court. These matters combined with concerns related to the Supreme Court, the show docket, usurpation of congressional authority, and the Department of Justice’s use of the Anti-Weaponization Fund, and prosecutions deemed unlawful, raise serious questions about the rule of law during the Trump era. This panel takes up urgent issues raised in the Trump era.
Panelists will discuss:
- Executive power and executive orders
- The revival of the Comstock Act
- Alien Enemies Act
- Mass replacement of civil servants, including at the DOJ
- Deportation, immigration, and human rights
- Separation of Powers and the circumvention of Congress
- Defiance of federal courts
- Institutional independence