In the past two years, particularly since the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, clinicians have been actively engaged in conversations about how to teach anti-racism in clinics. What has proven more difficult has been moving past how to bring issues related to race into the classroom to directly leverage historical and systemic racism in oral and written advocacy before courts.
Recently, however, legal advocates have used history to challenge legal regimes in areas as diverse as non-unanimous juries, gun control, immigration crimes, and social security benefits. Because laws were built upon notions of white supremacy and racial animus, these advocates argue, the legal regimes they buttress must fall. To teach our students to make these--often successful and transformative--arguments, we must equip them with two sets of tools. First, we must give them insight into the history of our legal system and the ways in which it was informed by systemic racism while teaching them how to uncover the racist histories of laws themselves. Second, we must equip students with the vocabulary to discuss racism and the history of racism, not only in the classroom but in the courtroom and other professional settings. In considering using arguments based on historical critiques of laws, advocates must engage their clients in conversations about the potential benefits and drawbacks of utilizing such a strategy, choose their words wisely and consider the audience so they can advocate aggressively without alienating judges and other legal decision-makers. In this workshop, the presenters will share lesson plans and strategies they have used successfully in their clinics to teach these concepts.