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Americans have long used the word “liberty,” to champion a variety of causes, but how do states consider the apparent and hidden legal concepts of that cherished ideal? 

A symposium, “Creating, Defining and Dismantling Liberty,” at the IU McKinney School of Law on Friday, September 22 will focus on the confluence of liberty and state government decision-making in the United States. 

The event is the culmination of nearly a year of research and planning by the 2023 fellows of the IU McKinney Program on Law and State Government (PLSG). PLSG Fellows Forrest Manning (left) and Ashley Rosenblatt (center) will each present their research exploring how vastly different and deeply held beliefs about liberty play out in approaches to quintessential state government areas of regulation. 

Manning’s research has focused on the contours of liberty around the topics of transportation, driving laws, and urban planning. He has explored how state governments’ administrative and legal structures influence personal liberty, including looking at ongoing efforts by various state governments to change those infrastructures. 

Rosenblatt spent her fellowship year looking at liberty in the context of privacy and economic freedoms. Her scholarship will focus on environmental, social and governance (ESG) measures and how states across the nation are laying the groundwork through this new lens of economic liberty.  

The daylong event also includes keynote speaker Shawn Fields, associate professor of law at California Western School of Law, who will present “Decriminalizing Movement: Decoupling Police from (Most) Motor Vehicle Regulation” and an afternoon conversation about “Liberty Through Privacy: The Aftermath of Dobbs,” with Stevie Pactor, Indiana Chapter staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. 

“Theirs is one of the most expansive PLSG Fellowship topics ever tackled,” said Professor Cynthia Baker (right), faculty advisor for the PLSG Fellowship since its inception in 1999. “Since our first meeting, Forrest, Ashley, and I have been discussing the many ways people use the term 'liberty' to champion their causes. State governments’ responses to pleas for liberty are changing how public tax dollars are used and how people engage with democracy at the state government level."  The 2023 PLSG symposium provides 5.5 hours of CLE credit and registration is required.