2026 Bellwood Memorial Lecture – From “Created Equal” to “Born Equal”—with Special Emphasis on America’s Northwest and the Recent Birthright Citizenship Case
Sponsored by the University of Idaho College of Law, The Idaho Supreme Court and the Idaho State Bar
Monday, October 26, 2026
Remarks begin at 3:30 p.m. PT
Lecture Begins 4:00 p.m., PT (5:00 p.m. MT)
Bruce M. Pitman Center, University of Idaho, Moscow – International Ballroom
*Live webcast available
1.0 CLE credits
Cost: Free
*Register by October 14th
The event begins with opening remarks at 3:30 p.m. PDT at the Pitman Center, International Ballroom in Moscow. This event is open to the public.
After the CLE is finished, please report your attendance HERE to get CLE credit by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, October 27th . Webcast attendees that do not report their attendance will not receive CLE credit.
Speaker: Akhil Reed Amar, Sterling Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale University
Lecture Description: Exactly two hundred and fifty years ago, America famously proclaimed that “all men are created equal.” Over the next few years, a grand American project to abolish slavery took flight in America’s northeast and America’s northwest. This year, Americans have once again debated large issues of creational equality and birth equality—this time in the context of a great debate over the meaning of birthright citizenship. Why did the Supreme Court decide this issue as it did in Trump v. Barbara? What would Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Washington, and Lincoln have thought about the current debate? Yale Law School Professor Akhil Reed Amar will examine these and related questions through the lens of his recent book, Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840–1920.
About the Sherman J. Bellwood Lectures
The Sherman J. Bellwood Lectures bring prominent and highly regarded local, regional and national leaders to the state of Idaho and the University of Idaho campus. Students have the opportunity to discuss, examine and debate a wide-range of subjects related to the justice system.
Throughout his distinguished career, Judge Sherman J. Bellwood was committed to the legal profession and to legal education. In one of his last and most generous contributions to legal education, Judge Bellwood endowed the Sherman J. Bellwood Lectures at the College of Law. According to the terms of his will, Judge Bellwood’s purpose in establishing this endowment was “to enable the College of Law to invite and present persons learned in the law to lecture on legal subjects from time to time.” This endowment is the largest endowed lectureship at the University of Idaho.
