Our Values

Today, as the COVID-19 virus creates havoc across the globe, some have mistakenly and wrongly laid blame for the virus at the feet of Asian people. Add to this the current President’s effort to single out China as being at fault and it makes for toxic brew that has led to racial discrimination on our very own streets.

Since the outbreak of the virus, our country has seen a climb in the number of racist incidents targeting Asian Americans. Restaurants have been boycotted or vandalized and people of Asian descent have faced verbal and physical abuse in their own communities. And while this racism is certainly not official U.S. policy, the highest levels of government offer tacit approval for those with such malice in their hearts.

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage month, providing us all with a timely reminder of the enormous contributions Asian Pacific Americans have made to our country. Sadly, current events also remind us of the discrimination these communities still face. The richness of our country is rooted in our diversity and Asian Pacific Americans are an integral part of that construct. We must stand with them now and not allow racism to dominate.

ACS remains committed to protecting and expanding the diversity of this great nation and we have recently updated our “values statement” to reflect this even more explicitly and publicly. At ACS we want to live our values as we stand with people from diverse backgrounds in their struggles against racism and injustice while we endeavor to create a more inclusive society.

ACS Full Values Statement: ACS welcomes a diverse membership into our network from a wide range of communities, including people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, gender, physical abilities, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, socioeconomic status, religious and spiritual values, and national origin. These members are critical to ACS’s mission of building and leading a diverse legal community that dedicates itself to advancing and defending democracy, justice, equality, and liberty; to securing a government that serves the public interest; and to guarding against the abuse of law and the concentration of power. All those in the ACS family are called upon to actively and affirmatively participate in creating and promoting a more inclusive and diverse American Constitution Society. https://www.acslaw.org/about-us/