Prof. William Araiza’s Animus: A Short Introduction to Bias in the Law Book Talk and Panel Discussion

About the Program
When a town council denies a housing permit for a group home for intellectually disabled persons, or a state law disallows sexual orientation as a ground for alleging illegal discrimination, how should a court analyze a claim that the government is engaging in unconstitutional discrimination? In recent years, courts have often struck down such laws on the ground that they are infected by unconstitutional “animus.”

The concept of “animus” in equal protection law has gained new prominence in recent years and is being increasingly applied to claims of unconstitutional discrimination on a variety of grounds. In Animus: A Short Introduction to Bias in the Law (NYU Press 2017), Professor William D. Araiza provides an intuitive, accessible account of the Supreme Court’s emerging animus doctrine. Building upon existing constitutional law doctrine, the book uses the Supreme Court’s animus cases as source material for constructing a coherent doctrine of unconstitutional animus. In doing so, Professor Araiza harmonizes the Court’s existing animus cases, explains how the doctrine can apply to new cases where plaintiffs allege animus, and connects modern constitutional law doctrine to its earliest roots.

Professor Araiza will be joined by other constitutional law faculty to discuss the book and concept of animus.

About the Author
William D. Araiza is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School. He has written numerous scholarly articles on constitutional and administrative law, and he has written textbooks on constitutional law and First Amendment law. He is the author of Animus: A Short Introduction to Bias in the Law (NYU Press 2017) and Enforcing the Equal Protection Clause: Congressional Power, Judicial Doctrine, and Constitutional Law (NYU Press 2015). A graduate of Columbia University, Georgetown University, and Yale Law School, Professor Araiza clerked for the Honorable William Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Honorable David Souter of the United States Supreme Court. He joined the Brooklyn Law School faculty in 2009.

Discussants
Doni Gewirtzman, Professor of Law, New York Law School 
Joel Gora, Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
Susan Herman, Centennial Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
K. Sabeel Rahman, Assistant Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School

RSVP online before Friday, February 2    

Copies of Animus (NYU Press 2017) will be available for purchase.