Constitutional Conversations: A Republic, If You Can Keep It

Alumni and friends of the College are invited to attend the upcoming discussion panel, A Republic, If You Can Keep It, as part of the Bruno and Sallie Pasquinelli Constitutional Conversations Lecture Series, a new lecture series in the Department of Political Science. The event will take place at the Union League Club of Chicago, located at 65 W Jackson Blvd, Chicago, IL 60604. Advanced registration is required — please register below.

Doors: 5:30 PM

Discussion Panel: 6:00 PM

Reception to follow

Event will be in-person and livestreamed

Discussion Panel:

• Kent Greenfield, J.D., University of Chicago
• Sonia Mittal, Ph.D., Yale Law School
• Steven Vladeck, J.D., Georgetown Law School

Moderator:

• Steven Schwinn, J.D., UIC Law School

The panel will include a Q&A portion. Registration for the event is required, and the panel will also be livestreamed. If you are registering for virtual attendance, you can submit a question on the registration form below. The reception is open to all attendees. Smart casual attire is required. 

Kent Greenfield is Professor of Law and the Dr. Thomas F. Carney Distinguished Scholar at Boston College Law School. His scholarship and public work focus on constitutional law, democratic institutions, the First Amendment, corporate power, and the ways law can respond to deep political and social division. Greenfield’s forthcoming book, Secession: Why Our Country Should Split Up (and How to Do It Peacefully) will be published by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, in January 2027. The book examines whether the United States’ increasingly profound political divisions might ultimately require a negotiated, democratic, and peaceful restructuring of the country. Greenfield is the author of three previous books: Corporations Are People Too (And They Should Act Like It), The Myth of Choice: Personal Responsibility in a World of Limits, and The Failure of Corporate Law: Fundamental Flaws and Progressive Possibilities. He is also the chief editor and principal author of the two Supreme Court volumes of Moore’s Federal Practice and the author of online casebooks in constitutional law and the First Amendment. His scholarly articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal, The Supreme Court Review, the Virginia Law Review, and numerous other leading journals. A frequent commentator on constitutional law, the Supreme Court, democracy, and corporate responsibility, Greenfield has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Al Jazeera, Fox, PBS, and other national and international outlets. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, USA Today, Slate, SCOTUSblog, Boston Globe, American Prospect, Salon, and The Nation. Greenfield has also been active in litigation involving civil rights, constitutional law, and corporate accountability.

Sonia Mittal is a clinical lecturer in law and associate research scholar in law at Yale Law School, where she teaches the Peter Gruber Rule of Law Clinic and studies constitutional failure here and abroad. The Rule of Law Clinic advances the rule of law here and abroad through strategic litigation, advocacy, and public awareness initiatives, and it has filed briefs in numerous US Supreme Court cases. Mittal previously served as senior counsel and assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, where she helped oversee the prosecution of defendants charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. She also served as a trial attorney in the national criminal enforcement section of the Department of Justice’s antitrust division, where she brought the first charges in the Department’s investigation into criminal price-fixing in the generic pharmaceutical industry. That investigation resulted in in top executive pleas to felony price-fixing charges, charges against or resolutions with seven pharmaceutical companies, and the largest criminal penalty for a domestic cartel. She clerked for two federal court judges. She studies constitutional failure here and abroad. Her academic work has been published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review; Journal of Law, Economics, & Organization; Northwestern Law Review; Stanford Law Review Online; and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, among other publications. She has also previously served as amici in cases implicating rule of law issues. She earned a B.A. and Ph.D. from Stanford University and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Stephen I. Vladeck, the Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts at the Georgetown University Law Center, is a nationally recognized expert on the Supreme Court, the federal courts, national security law, and military justice. He is the author of the New York Times-bestselling book The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. A highly regarded appellate advocate, Vladeck has argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 20 before various lower federal civilian and military courts. Beyond the classroom and the courtroom, Vladeck is a leading public voice on the work of the Supreme Court. He serves as CNN’s Supreme Court analyst and writes One First, a popular weekly newsletter about the Court. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals, including the Harvard Law Review, the Yale Law Journal, and the Supreme Court Review, and his popular writing has been published in outlets ranging from The New York Times and The Atlantic to Slate and TIME. He is also a co-author of Aspen Publishers’ leading national security law and counterterrorism law casebooks. Vladeck graduated from Yale Law School in 2004, where he was an executive editor of the Yale Law Journal, won the Harlan Fiske Stone Prize for outstanding moot court oralist, and shared the Potter Stewart Prize for best moot court team performance. After law school he clerked for two federal court appellate justices. He earned his B.A. summa cum laude with Highest Distinction in History and Mathematics from Amherst College in 2001.

Steven D. Schwinn is a professor of law at the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, civil rights, and human rights. Steve's writings have appeared in a variety of law reviews, professional journals, popular press publications, and online publications. Steve served twice as the Edward T. and Noble W. Lee Chair in Constitutional Law, and he is a scholar in the UI-system Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Among other curricular initiatives, Steve led the Law School's effort to create a unified clinical program and universal experiential requirement, and he served as the inaugural director of the unified clinical program and co-director of the International Human Rights Clinic. Steve speaks regularly with civic organizations and civic and government teacher organizations, and he appears regularly in the media.

Registration is below. Please email LASEvents@uic.edu for any questions.