Under the Gavel: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Most Recent Term in Review

Co-presented with the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA Law

With rulings on major issues expected by the start of summer 2025, the United States Supreme Court is once again at the center of key legal and policy debates. An all-star panel of legal scholars analyzes the meaning and implications of the latest Supreme Court cases, including Trump v. Wilcox on the power of the President to control personnel and policy at independent federal agencies, Louisiana v. Callais on racial gerrymandering and the Voting Rights Act, United States v. Skrmetti on denial of gender-affirming medical care for minors, as well as a trio of cases on religion in public schools under the First Amendment. The panelists will also consider the implications of these rulings on the role of the courts in response to the Trump Administration’s broad assertion of executive power including cases focused on President Trump’s immigration policy and the Alien Enemies Act.

Panelists include: Cary Franklin, the McDonald/Wright Chair of Law Faculty Director of the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy and Faculty Director of the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles; Justin Levitt, the White House's first Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights (2021-22) and Professor of Law at Loyola Marymount University; Eugene Volokh, the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of California, Los Angeles and Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution; and Jennifer M. Chacón, the Bruce Tyson Mitchell Professor of Law at Stanford University. Moderated by Rick Hasen, the Gary T. Schwartz Endowed Chair in Law, Professor of Law and Political Science, and Director, Safeguarding Democracy Project at the University of California, Los Angeles.