The New York Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law will host an event titled, Reforming Albany: What Is Wrong with the State Legislature and How to Fix It.  The event will be co-hosted by several of New York’s most well-renowned progressive organizations, including Common Cause/New York, the State Affairs Committee of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Empire Center for New York State Policy, the League of Women Voters of the City of New York, and the Women’s City Club of New York. 

The event features Assemblymember Hakeem Jeffries, AD 57; State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, SD 25; Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause/New York; and Edmund J. McMahon, Director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.  Lawrence Norden, Senior Counsel for the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law will moderate. 

About the American Constitution Society:  The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy (ACS) promotes the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and the fundamental values it expresses: individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, access to justice, democracy and the rule of law. These abiding principles are reflected in the vision of the Constitution’s framers and the wisdom of forward-looking leaders who have shaped our law throughout American history. As a result of their efforts, the Constitution has retained its authority and relevance for each new generation.  In recent years, an activist conservative legal movement has gained influence – eroding these enduring values and presenting the law as a series of sterile abstractions. This new orthodoxy, which threatens to dominate our courts and our laws, does a grave injustice to the American vision. The American Constitution Society embraces the progress our nation has made toward full embodiment of the Constitution’s core values. ACS believes that law can and should be a force for improving the lives of all people. We are revitalizing and transforming legal and policy debates in classrooms, courtrooms, legislatures and the media, and we are building a diverse and dynamic network of progressives committed to justice. Through these efforts, ACS will ensure that the institutions of American law reflect the highest values of our nation and serve the needs of its people.

About the Brennan Center for Justice:  The Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law is a non-partisan public policy and law institute that focuses on fundamental issues of democracy and justice. Their work ranges from voting rights to redistricting reform, from access to the courts to presidential power in the fight against terrorism. A singular institution—part think tank, part public interest law firm, part advocacy group—the Brennan Center combines scholarship, legislative and legal advocacy, and communications to win meaningful, measurable change in the public sector. The Brennan Center’s New York reform project has released three reports documenting in detail the pervasive dysfunction in the state’s legislative process and maintains a blog about New York reform at http://reformNY.blogspot.com.