The University of Oregon Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholars Program hosted guest lecturer Margo Schlanger for a talk titled “Federal Civil Rights Cases by and against the Trump Administration” in the William W. Knight Law Center on Jan. 29.
Schlanger, who is the University of Michigan’s Wade H. and Dores M. McCree Collegiate Professor of Law, spoke to roughly 100 students and community members.
“The Trump administration is working to radically transform the landscape of American civil rights,” Schlanger said.
During the lecture, Schlanger addressed four issues: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the recognition of transgender identities, birthright citizenship and the ongoing situation in Minneapolis.
On the topic of DEI, Schlanger argued that the Trump Administration is actively working to reverse a “shared under-standing” of integrated equality set during the 1960s and 1970s.
“The federal government is currently taking the position that integration itself is invidious, that the integration idea is an invidious goal and that the constitution’s equal protection clause bans integration efforts,” Schlanger said.
According to Schlanger, the Trump Administration is litigating that disparate impact, which is when a neutral policy or action unintentionally causes disproportionate negative harm to a group, is illegal.
“The stakes are, can the Trump Administration persuade the courts and the Supreme Court that integrated measures (and) barrier removal is constitutionally suspect? Can the Trump Administration defend the proposition, move the proposition into the mainstream, that integration is invidious?” Schlanger said.
On the topic of transgender identities, Schlanger explained several Executive Orders issued in the early weeks of Trump’s presidency and the subsequent cases that have since emerged against them.
“The federal government’s assault on trans people is rife with just evident malice, like its decision to use prior names on government portraits of trans officials from prior administrations. This kind of gleeful unkindness tells,” Schlanger said.
Schlanger briefly discussed birthright citizenship, breaking down an executive order aimed at stripping citizenship rights from those born in the United States if their parents are both non-citizens.
“What I want you to notice, why I’m doing this in a civil rights talk, is that what the Trump Administration is seeking is permission to create a permanent racialized underclass,” Schlanger said.
Schlanger drew the lecture to a close by briefly discussing the ongoing situation in Minneapolis, explaining several of the litigation claims brought against the Trump Administration, including that the federal presence in Minneapolis violates the 10th Amendment’s state sovereignty.
Schlanger finished the lecture by asking those in attendance what kind of country they want to live in and taking audience questions.
In a statement to The Daily Emerald, the Alpha of Oregon Phi Beta Kappa Chapter said that the purpose of the Visiting Scholars Program — which is sponsored by the national chapter of Phi Beta Kappa — is to “contribute to the intellectual life of the campus” by bringing “some of America’s most distinguished scholars, artists and researchers.”
Through the Visiting Scholars Program, scholars spend two days at institutions around the country, engaging with students, faculty and staff by participating in classroom discussions, work- shops, meals and public lectures.
