About the Program

The annual OUTLaws Symposium aims to bring together students, academics, activists, and attorneys interested in the development of LGBTQIA+ rights in the US and abroad. As the Symposium is occurring during a period of widespread legal, political, and social backlash against the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly our trans siblings, we seek to focus on the consequences of recent and upcoming Supreme Court decisions on the LGBTQIA+ community. With a diverse array of panelists, we aim to examine the Court’s approach to free speech and religious freedom in the second Trump presidency and to critically analyze litigation strategies in First Amendment cases. This year, Fordham OUTLaws is thrilled to be partnering with the American Constitution Society to put on this Symposium.

The Symposium will examine the protections the First Amendment affords—even when those protections come into tension with anti-discrimination laws. The first two panels will focus on the substance of First Amendment doctrine, while the final panel will survey effective litigation strategies for advocating before the Supreme Court’s new conservative-supermajority.