Mr. Smith will address how those seeking to produce landmark civil rights victories need to engage in careful step-by-step strategy – laying the ground work for the eventual Supreme Court case. The classic example is the litigation coordinated by Thurgood Marshall leading up to Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. More recently, the movement for LGBT legal equality initially had a misstep in Bowers v. Hardwick, but managed to turn that around through 17 years of careful work, producing the land-mark victory in Lawrence v. Texas. This history provides an interesting prism through which to view the current challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act and states’ de-nial of marriage equality, including the Proposition 8 case from California.

Generously sponsored by:
The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History; Political Science; Sociology; Northwestern School of Law; & Gender and Sexuality Studies