Lauren Sudeall

First day of classes! I’ll be initiating ~100 students into the wild world of constitutional law, teaching a course in which VLS students co-author & publish pieces with students at the Nashville women’s prison, and co-teaching a 1-credit courtwatching practicum (+ new office door art). #anchordown

Thank you to the editors of the South Carolina Law Review for organizing such a compelling and important symposium on access to justice, the rule of law, and democracy!

Hard to break through the noise these days, but if you want a different take on the democracy theme, my latest piece explores the values that should define the relationship between courts (as democratic institutions) and the people who use them #accesstojustice
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

The government is arguing that being given a chance to shout “no, don’t send me into a war zone in a country I have no relationship to” at prison guards just before being put on the plane constitutes a “meaningful opportunity to be heard.”

Georgia Senate Passes Bill Lowering Legal Standard for Intellectual Disability for Capital Defendants; Sends Bill to Governor’s Desk | Death Penalty Information Center On March 31, 2025, the Georgia Senate, in a 53 – 1 vote, passed HB 123, send­ing the bill to Governor Brian Kemp’s desk to be signed. HB 123 pro­vides...

Happy to see this article (papers.ssrn.com/abstract=296...) may finally be rendered irrelevant by the long overdue change in law it supported. Thanks to all who brought HB123 to this historic point and 🤞for Gov. Kemp's signature. deathpenaltyinfo.org/georgia-sena...

Point is - we should all do our homework; otherwise we may just be contributing to the problem, rather than helping to solve it.

I am sure it is a complex issue, and I do not purport to have any definitive answers -- but I do know that local politics (taken broadly) are often complicated and, well, local. Yet now the soundbite is out there; no doubt to be further recirculated and perhaps used as ammunition.

They said that, in their view, it was taken out of context and that attacking this person was not in the best interest of their community and broader strategy or goals.

Just saw a national media columnist re-post an 'expose' clip of a local (Democratic) politician of mine to make a principled point about politics; I was surprised and asked two friends and fellow constituents who are part of the LGBTQ community and very active in local and state advocacy re: same.

A note about posting and re-posting flashy clips, especially where local communities and politics are involved - a short 🧵

Quantum Potential S1E2: Lauren Sudeall Quantum Potential · Episode

Thankful for the opportunity and excited to be featured in the latest episode of "Quantum Potential" with @VanderbiltU Provost Cybele Raver, talking about how and why it is so important to work toward a more people-centered justice system. open.spotify.com/episode/1H5Q...

I find it somewhat amusing that this is the default prompt on X - so fitting for these times.

Not the main point here, but this sentence contains multitudes: “When the Supreme Court eventually weighs in on the order, we will not learn whether it is constitutional. We will learn whether the Supreme Court is prepared to follow the Constitution.”

Con Law I (Fall 2024) Playlist · Lauren · 22 items

This semester in Con Law I, I played a song clip at the beginning of each class (starting wk 2) and asked the students to guess the relevance. Bonus points for anyone who wants to try - here’s the playlist for Fall 2024 😉 open.spotify.com/playlist/64D...

33! Looking fwd to seeing you in March :)

Access to Justice Overview The Vanderbilt Access to Justice (AtJ) Initiative aims to expand and equalize access to knowledge and participation in the civil and criminal legal systems. It does so through an interdiscipl...

What an incredible gift to be able to facilitate these moments of connection and to play a small role in amplifying our shared humanity. #accesstojustice #VanderbiltLaw law.vanderbilt.edu/access-to-ju...

They hoped to continue these conversations - and we'll talk in our last law school class session next week about ideas for doing so.

Several of the inside students said they were leaving the class more hopeful than they had entered -- hopeful that there are law students wanting to make a difference and people working to change the law.

I was less sure what the inside students would gain from it, but was relieved to hear that they found it valuable as well. In our last class this past Tuesday, one woman emphasized the importance of creating spaces for dialogue "between the people who make laws and the people living those laws."

Part of what I loved most about the class was that it intentionally placed all of the students on a level plane, rather than having students interact through a lawyer-client relationship.

At times, the outside students found it sobering and other times shocking; but across the board, they found it impactful.

They learned a great deal about how the criminal legal system works in practice, and how it feels to experience that system from a very different perspective than we often hear in law school.

The outside students developed and facilitated meaningful conversations about justice, access to justice, the role of lawyers, alternative models of legal services provision, and reform.

As with many new endeavors, I wasn't sure how it would go. We had some bumps along the way -- including having to reschedule our first class due to a COVID-lockdown at the prison -- but overall, it proved to be a truly phenomenal experience.

This fall, I piloted a new access to justice class at @vanderbiltlaw. It was intended to create a collaborative and two-way learning environment for law students (+ one divinity school student) and students incarcerated at the women's prison in Nashville - a 🧵

I think I may have hit the #workingmom trifecta by having my kids guest judge a legal design exercise (over their school break) in my #accesstojustice class, followed by a virtual class visit by legal design guru Margaret Hagan [+ candy for (almost) Valentine's Day] ❤️