The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) is the latest in a series of legal organizations to announce it is relocating a meeting away from Texas due to discriminatory legislation that will soon take effect in the state. AALS also stated in a letter addressed to the Mayor of Austin, Texas, and several Texas state legislative leaders that it “will not hold any other meetings in Texas because of actions by the legislature to discriminate.”
“I write today to announce that the Association of American Law Schools (AALS) is relocating its 2018 Conference on Clinical Legal Education from Austin, Texas, to Chicago, Illinois,” wrote AALA President Paul Marcus. “It will be held there on April 29 to May 2, 2018. AALS has decided to make the move, and will not hold any other meetings in Texas because of actions by the legislature to discriminate against individuals seeking to immigrate to the United States and against members of the LGBTQ community.”
The letter, which is available in its entirety on the AALS website, goes on to reference Texas’ SB4 (an immigration bill) and SB6 (a “bathroom bill”) as two of the recent measures that influenced its decision.
Other organizations that also recently announced they are moving upcoming meetings out of Texas due to discriminatory legislation include the National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators (NHCSL), the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and the American Immigration Lawyers Associations (AILA).
