Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
This panel examines how constitutional law and legal structures have been central to producing and preserving racial hierarchy across different contexts and eras. These papers explore how caste supremacy aligned with whiteness in early naturalization law; parallels between fugitive slave laws and the contemporary rendition of migrants; the Insular Cases and white supremacy in U.S. territorial governance; and racial hierarchy in Redeemer constitutions and in the English language requirement for naturalization. Together, these analyses reveal how legal frameworks have not merely reflected racial hierarchies but have actively constructed and reconstituted them across temporal and geographic boundaries.
• Sumit Baudh, Professor of Law, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, UCLA Law SJD ‘16, Citizenship and Equal Protection Laws in the U.S. and India: A South Asian Dalit Critique of Thind (1923)
• Emma Brush, Assistant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Amherst College, The Fugitivity the Law Creates
• Gabriel “Jack” Chin, Edward L. Barrett Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law and Paul Finkelman, Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law, White Supremacy in the Territories
• Marc E. Jácome, Immigration Attorney, Chicago Immigration Advocates, UCLA Law JD ‘19, White Naturalization: A Critique of the English Language Requirement in United States Naturalization Law
• Moderator & Panelist: Brian Highsmith, Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, The Constitutional Entrenchment of Racial Hierarchy: Lessons from the “Redeemer” Constitutions
This panel examines how constitutional law and legal structures have been central to producing and preserving racial hierarchy across different contexts and eras. These papers explore how caste supremacy aligned with whiteness in early naturalization law; parallels between fugitive slave laws and the contemporary rendition of migrants; the Insular Cases and white supremacy in U.S. territorial governance; and racial hierarchy in Redeemer constitutions and in the English language requirement for naturalization. Together, these analyses reveal how legal frameworks have not merely reflected racial hierarchies but have actively constructed and reconstituted them across temporal and geographic boundaries.
• Sumit Baudh, Professor of Law, Jindal Global Law School, O.P. Jindal Global University, UCLA Law SJD ‘16, Citizenship and Equal Protection Laws in the U.S. and India: A South Asian Dalit Critique of Thind (1923)
• Emma Brush, Assistant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence and Social Thought, Amherst College, The Fugitivity the Law Creates
• Gabriel “Jack” Chin, Edward L. Barrett Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law and Paul Finkelman, Professor of Law, University of Toledo College of Law, White Supremacy in the Territories
• Marc E. Jácome, Immigration Attorney, Chicago Immigration Advocates, UCLA Law JD ‘19, White Naturalization: A Critique of the English Language Requirement in United States Naturalization Law
• Moderator & Panelist: Brian Highsmith, Assistant Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, The Constitutional Entrenchment of Racial Hierarchy: Lessons from the “Redeemer” Constitutions
