Lecture on Law & Justice Explores Gay Rights and the Constitution

Purchase College, SUNY will present the Thirteenth Annual John Howard Lecture on Law and Justice on Tuesday, March 19 at 7 p.m. in the Red Room of the Student Services building. The event is free and open to the public.

This year’s lecture, Gay Rights and the Constitution: Why Gay Rights Change Everything, will be delivered by David Richards, the Edwin D. Webb Professor of Law at New York University Law School.

Professor Richard’s talk will place the struggle for constitutional protection of gay rights in the context of earlier and ongoing struggles to protect the rights of racial minorities and women. It will also explore how the constitutional questions posed in the struggle for gay rights relate to broad issues of patriarchal nationalism and imperialism, both in the past and in their resurgent forms today.

John Howard, Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of Sociology, will introduce the talk.

In addition to being the author of author of numerous books and articles, David Richards has formulated arguments on the impact of patriarchy in the interpretation of law and religion, on decriminalization, and on the role of history in constitutional interpretation that have been influential in the legal community.

John Howard, is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, Purchase College. He received a doctorate from Stanford University and a law degree from Pace University. His most recent book is Poor Joshua: The DeShaney Case and Child Abuse in America (2018).

This lecture is made possible by a generous contribution from Robert J. and Marilyn E. Timberger and others. For further information, please call: 914-251-6631.

About Purchase College, SUNY

Purchase College, part of the State University of New York (SUNY) network of 64 universities and colleges, was founded in 1967 by Governor Nelson Rockefeller. His aspiration for Purchase was to create a dynamic campus that combined conservatory training in the visual and performing arts with programs in the liberal arts and sciences, in order to inspire an appreciation for both intellectual and artistic talents in all students. Today, Purchase College, SUNY is a community of students, faculty, and friends where open-minded engagement with the creative process leads to a lifetime of intellectual growth and professional opportunity. For more information about the College, visit www.purchase.edu.