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Abolition Across Criminal Justice, Immigration, and National Security

Friday, April 1, 2022 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET

Abolition Across Criminal Justice, Immigration, and National Security

Abolition Across Criminal Justice, Immigration, and National Security explores the interconnections between abolitionist movements in the criminal justice, immigration, and national security spaces. The conference’s goal is to contribute to the growing public conversation on abolition by exploring the importance of taking an intersectional approach to the abolitionist project and underscoring the close relationship that exists by necessity between abolitionist movements across interrelated legal domains. The conference will also serve as an opportunity for activists, scholars, and legal practitioners across disciplines to meet and connect, in the hopes of generating future collaborations.

This event has been approved for:

  • 5.5 General CLE
  • 2.0 Criminal Trial Law Certification Credits
  • 2.0 Immigration and Nationality Law Certification Credits
  • 2.0 State and Federal Government and Administrative Practice Certification Credits

The 2022 Abolition Across Criminal Justice, Immigration, and National Security conference is hosted by the University of Florida Levin College of Law and will be held virtually via Zoom. Registration is free.

View the recorded conference.

Conference Schedule:

Friday April 1, 2022

  • 9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. ET | Welcome Address and Introductions
  • 9:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. ET | Keynote Speaker: Amna Akbar, Professor of Law at The Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
  • 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. ET | Panel 1: Criminal Justice
    • Jocelyn Simonson (she/her/hers), Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School
    • Shakeer Rahman, lawyer and organizer, Stop LAPD Spying Coalition
    • Alla Alaghbri, lead at Believers Bail Out, Islamic Studies PhD student, University of Chicago Divinity School
    • Maya Ragsdale, executive director of Beyond the Bars, organizer, community lawyer
    • Colby Lenz, co-founder of Survived & Punished, organizer with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) and the Transgender Advocacy Group (TAG)
  • 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 a.m. ET | Lunch
  • 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET | Panel 2: Immigration
    • Alina Das, immigrant rights activist, lawyer, professor at New York University School of Law, and co-director of the NYU Immigrant Rights Clinic
    • Azadeh Shahshahani (she/her/hers), Legal and Advocacy Director for Project South
    • Haddy Gassama, National Director of Policy & Advocacy for the UndocuBlack Network
    • Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director at Detention Watch Network
    • Jacinta Gonzalez, Senior Campaign Organizer with Mijente
  • 2:00 p.m. – 2:15 p.m. ET | Break
  • 2:15 p.m. – 3:45 p.m. ET | Panel 3: National Security
    • Maryam Jamshidi, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Florida, Levin College of Law
    • Baher Azmy, Legal Director for the Center for Constitutional Rights
    • Darakshan Raja, Executive Director of Muslims for Just Futures
    • Fatema Ahmad (she/her/hers), Executive Director at Muslim Justice League
    • Shenaaz Janmohamed (she/her/hers), Director of Queer Crescent
  • 3:45 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. ET | Closing Statements
The speaker lineup is subject to change.

Published: March 18th, 2022

Category: Events

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.