Upcoming Events and News: Week of Jan. 3rd.

Today dawns a new era in ACS blogging.

From now on....

Each Monday, a current ACS board member will post to this site upcoming events, and ACS-related news.
Each Wednesday, a guest columnist from the CLS student and practitioner community will be sharing with us their thoughts on current legal issues.
Each Friday, 1L Mary Kelly Persyn will be doing a weekly news round-up of events and articles that may be of interest to the progressive legal community.

Each month will also feature a different Point/Counterpoint discussion with the CLS Federalist Society.
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Upcoming Events
February 6th: Delaware State Treasurer Jack Markell will share his thoughts on what is like to be a young person in politics and progressive policy experiments at the local level.
February 18: ACS co-sponsors Columbia's Voting Rights Act Symposium
April 8-10: The Constitution in 2020: A conference at Yale Law School

ACS Competition Info

1. ACS National Student Comment Competition

The American Constitution Society proudly announces its first annual ACS National Student Comment Competition. This annual competition for law students nationwide is an opportunity to recognize legal scholarship that enhances the understanding and advancement of progressive legal theories.
Overview:
The University of Pennsylvania Law School's American Constitution Society chapter and the national American Constitution Society will sponsor an annual legal writing competition for law students nationwide. Papers will be judged on their effective use, analysis, and/or expansion of progressive legal scholarship. This year's judging committee includes the Honorable Marsha Berzon, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit; the Honorable Rosemary Barkett, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit; the Honorable Robert Pratt, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa; Professor Randall Kennedy, Harvard Law School; and Professor Seth Kreimer, University of Pennsylvania School of Law; Alan Morrison, Stanford Law School; and Akua Asare, Editor-in-Chief, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. The student authors of the top three papers will receive a special award at the national convention and a cash prize for their work. The top paper will receive an offer of publication in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law.

Checklist of requirements:
Eligibility: Any full-time or part-time student currently enrolled in a J.D. or LLM program at an American law school.
Format: Submissions should be unpublished academic works, 25-50 pages including footnotes, 12 point courier font, 1 inch margins.
Deadline: Submissions are due on February 11, 2005. Papers received after this date will not be considered.
Previous publication/use: No paper previously published will be considered. However, papers currently being considered for publication, papers related to research done by the author and/or submitted to fulfill a course requirement or law journal credit requirements may be submitted.
Content: Submissions may deal with any aspect of the law so long as the overall theme relates to the competition theme, "The Constitution in the 21st Century." Submissions must develop a progressive vision of the Constitution in the 21st century, or critique a conservative interpretation or theory. Submissions may focus on one specific area of the law, legal theory, or jurisprudence, or may broadly cover multiple areas or major themes, so long as the submission as a whole relates to the topic.
Author: Submissions must be an original work written by a single author.

2. ACSBlog Student Writing Contest

Submissions due January 31, 2005
ACSBlog, is seeking to hire up to five law student Editors-at-Large to publish biweekly analytical columns on the official blog of the American Constitution Society. New columnists will be selected based on a writing contest to be judged by the blog's current editorial team. Any current law student may enter; 1Ls are especially encouraged to apply.

Since its inception in August 2004, ACSBlog has received over 100,000 visits and been linked to by leading blogs including the Volokh Conspiracy, AndrewSullivan.com, BoingBoing.net and Slashdot.org.

Entries should be between 250-750 words in length, and should focus upon a legal issue of national significance or interest. Additionally, entries should adhere to the following guidelines:

ACS is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) educational organization. We do not lobby, litigate, or take positions on specific legal or public policy initiatives, cases, legislation, or nominations. Accordingly, entries should provide rigorous analysis rather than editorializing or presenting statements of opinion. In general, both sides of an issue should be fairly presented, although authors enjoy discretion as to which arguments are worthy of greatest emphasis. Opinions, including controversial and strongly stated opinions, voiced by reputable sources, may and should be quoted, with full attribution provided.
Entries should be professional in tone and avoid ad hominem attacks. We emphasize brevity, good writing and accessibility for a readership that includes lawyers, law students and general readership interested in law and public policy issues. Appropriate uses of humor are encouraged, but must be genuinely funny.
Quotations, third-party opinions, cases and statements of controversial legal or political theories should be cited. While Bluebooking is acceptable for materials unavailable online, the preferred method of citation is a hyperlink to the original source.

Submissions will be judged based on relevance, clarity and entertainment value. Please avoid editorializing and statements of personal opinion. For writing samples, previously published columns are available at www.acsblog.org.

Entries should be submitted to Ian Millhiser, Editor-in-Chief at ian@acslaw.org by January 31st. In addition, please include your name, phone number, the name of your law school, your expected date of graduation and a copy of your resume. The top ten entries will be published on ACSBlog, and between 3-5 entrants will be invited to join the blog staff as Editors-at-Large.

In the event ACSBlog chooses to publish a particular submission, entrant grants the American Constitution Society first North American publication rights to their submission as consideration for ACS' effort in reading submissions.