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We are proud of our New England Law faculty who are shaping future legal minds as well as being on the front lines of shaping the law—locally and nationally.

New England Law Professor Lawrence Friedman, along with Professor Robert F. Williams of Rutgers Law School, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case called Moore v. Harper. “Amicus brief” literally means “friend of the court.” These briefs aid the court by providing relevant expertise and insight into a pending matter. Professor Friedman is a widely respected scholar who has written and spoken about state and federal constitutional matters in casebooks, articles, and on television news segments.

In Moore v. Harper, which is scheduled for argument on December 7, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine whether the North Carolina Supreme Court is empowered to strike down a state legislature’s gerrymandered congressional map. The North Carolina Supreme Court viewed the map in question as extremely favorable to Republicans and described it as “egregious and intentional.”

In addition to its impact in North Carolina, the ruling in Moore could have far-reaching consequences throughout the country and potentially affect future elections in profound ways. Reviewing the history of state constitutional treatment of legislative authority, Professors Friedman and Williams state in their amicus brief that “It is inconceivable that the same men who sought to establish a system of checks and balances on legislative authorities within their own state constitutional systems would have awarded state legislatures a special federal constitutional exemption to act beyond that limited authority.”

New England Law is at the forefront of law as it is being debated and created. Our faculty bring practical perspective to their classrooms, providing a real-world and real-time learning experience for students.