John P. Morris Memorial Lecture: 'Are Public Schools Becoming Constitution-Free Zones?'

About the lecture

Race, sex, religion, crime, liberty, patriotism, equality. The Supreme Court’s treatment of these incendiary topics has indelibly shaped public education and the constitutional rights of students around the country. In his new book, Justin Driver maintains that since the 1970s, the Supreme Court has regularly abdicated responsibility in protecting students’ rights, risking transforming public schools into Constitution-free zones and in turn jeopardizing our basic constitutional order. How have courts evaluated corporal punishment, random drug tests, strip searches, and transgender students accessing restrooms? Join Justin Driver, author of "The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind," as he analyzes these pressing legal questions regarding public schools and their place in American society.

Guest lecturer

Justin Driver is the Harry N. Wyatt Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. A graduate of Brown, Oxford (where he was a Marshall Scholar), and Harvard Law School (where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review), Driver clerked for Supreme Court Justices Stephen Breyer and Sandra Day O’Connor. A recipient of the American Society for Legal History’s William Nelson Cromwell Article Prize, Driver has a distinguished publication record in the nation’s leading law reviews. He has also written extensively for lay audiences, including pieces in Slate, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The New Republic, where he was a contributing editor. A member of the American Law Institute and of the American Constitution Society’s Academic Advisory Board, Driver is also an editor of the Supreme Court Review. Before attending law school, Driver received a master’s degree in education from Duke and taught civics and American history to high school students. His first book, "The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Education, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for the American Mind," was published by Pantheon in September 2018.

Lunch will be provided.