Over the past two decades, our nation’s legal landscape has been significantly reshaped by conservative legal ideology hostile to fundamental liberties and equality, congressional authority and responsibility, and access to the courts for the vindication of rights. Through a concerted campaign by conservative politicians, academics and activists, that ideology has permeated popular discourse and translated into real legal and political change.

The time is right to reclaim our Constitution, and ACS launched The Constitution in the 21st Century initiative expressly for that purpose. Through the project, ACS members:

• develop and disseminate progressive interpretations on a wide range of issues;
• debunk constitutional rationales that use misleading or disingenuous interpretations to mask conservative policy objectives;
• devise and implement strategies for shaping constitutional debate and constitutional law along progressive lines; and
• mobilize diverse constituencies on behalf of this vision: academics, practicing lawyers, public interest advocates, judges, government policymakers and law students, as well as citizens whose constitutional understandings help determine the constitutional democracy in which we live.

The project’s intellectual content includes both foundational intellectual work and persuasive distillations of existing work made readily accessible to practitioners, policymakers and the public. Components of the project include:

• Issue Groups: The project's working core consists of nationwide ACS Issue Groups of lawyers and academics working in particular subject areas. The Issue Groups focus on topical concerns of the day as well as more enduring matters, and both challenge flawed premises at work in the law and demonstrate the legitimacy and power of progressive approaches. To facilitate discussion and interaction among individuals interested in the work of the Issue Groups, the project has created an email listserve for each Issue Group. Members of ACS who join the Issue Groups can use these listserves to engage in discussion, announce events, or post relevant articles. To sign up for an Issue Group listserve, please click here. Currently, there are Issue Groups in these areas:
  
  
  • Access to Justice,
  • Constitutional Interpretation and Change,
  • Criminal Justice,
  • Democracy and Voting,
  • Economic, Workplace and Environmental Regulation,
  • Equality and Liberty,
  • The Religion Clauses,
  • Separation of Powers and Federalism and,
  • International Law and the Constitution Working Group.
• Conferences and Other Events: The project includes a variety of conferences and other events through which individuals develop and share ideas. Recent conferences and symposia include:
  
  
  • "War, Terrorism, and Torture," co-sponsored by ACS and Indiana University School of Law;
  • "Keeping Faith with the Constitution in Changing Times," co-sponsored by ACS and Vanderbilt Law School;
  • A "Conference on Elections and Democracy" held at Stanford Law School, co-sponsored by ACS and others;
  • "The Religion Clauses in the 21st Century," co-sponsored by ACS and the West Virginia University School of Law; and
  • "Effecting Change: A Summit on Civil Rights, Civil Liberties and Social Justice" Co-Sponsored by ACS & the ABA Section on IRR
  • "Music, Technology, and Intellectual Property Policy Day," co-sponsored by ACS and the Future of Music Coalition.
  • "The Future of the Freedom of Religion: A Dialogue," co-sponsored by ACS, Sidley Austin LLP, and Interdisciplinary Center for Law and Religion at the Catholic University of America
  • "Building Freedom, Building Security: The Challenge of the Next Five Years," co-sponsored by ACS and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law
• Publications: The project publishes Issue Briefs by a variety of authors on legal and policy issues suitable for audiences ranging from legal scholars to practitioners to interested citizens. In addition, selected Issue Briefs are compiled in a twice-yearly journal, Advance. We also will encourage students to engage in progressive scholarship, including through an annual writing competition.
• Project Website: A special section of the ACS website is devoted to the project as a central tool for encouraging on-going dialogue, inspiring new ideas and continuously refining our constitutional vision for the 21st Century. The website disseminates the work of the project, including all its publications, information regarding upcoming project activities, and other materials.
• Project Clearinghouse: To fill a void often voiced by the progressive legal community, the project will establish and maintain a clearinghouse that will bring together a wide variety of key relevant materials, including law review articles, court rulings, project publications, congressional testimony and book reviews. In addition to including the full text of these materials, the clearinghouse will analyze, summarize and organize the materials to maximize their accessibility and usefulness to practitioners, judges, advocates, academics and students.

Through The Constitution in the 21st Century, ACS seeks ultimately to revitalize our great nation’s commitment to liberty, equality and justice and our standing as a beacon of freedom and justice across the world.