Date: Thursday, September 21, 2023

Time: 5:00 – 6:30 PM (reception following)

Location: 411 Fayerweather Hall (1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New York, NU 10027)

Last June, the Supreme Court opened a chasm in the longstanding legal settlement between the First Amendment and anti-discrimination law. In 303 Creative v. Elenis, the Court ruled that public accommodations may deny service to same-sex couples under certain circumstances. This talk traces the new right to exclude back to the Christian Right movement lawyers who first advanced it in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Beyond explaining how market discrimination became protected speech, this historical genealogy helps locate lawyers for the New Christian Right in the broader history of the conservative legal movement.

Kate Redburn is an Academic Fellow and Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School. They are completing a JD-PhD in History and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale.