Penn Climate Seminar: Sarah E. Light & Amanda Shanor

Environmental law and policy intersects with the First Amendment in many ways, ranging from claims that laws compelling firms to disclose their emissions or climate-related risks constitute compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment, to concerns that recent terminations of federal Department of Energy grants in some states but not others are improperly retaliatory in violation of the First Amendment. Penn Climate is excited to welcome Wharton Professors Sarah E. Light and Amanda Shanor, who will engage in a lively discussion on these topics.

Sarah E. Light is the Mitchell J. Blutt and Margo Krody Blutt Presidential Professor, and Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, where her research lies at the intersection of environmental law and corporate sustainability. Light serves as co-Faculty Director of the Wharton Climate Center. Professor Light has taught courses related to Environmental Management, Law, and Policy as well as Negotiation during her time at Wharton. Professor Light has received numerous teaching awards for MBA and undergraduate teaching.

Prior to joining the Wharton faculty, Professor Light served for ten years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, including four years as Chief of the Environmental Protection Unit. Professor Light earned her J.D. from Yale Law School, an M.Phil in Politics from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and an A.B. from Harvard College.

Amanda Shanor is an Associate Professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches and writes about constitutional law, particularly freedom of speech. Her research explores the evolving meaning of the First Amendment, democratic theory, illiberalism, equality, and the relationship between constitutional law and economic life. Her scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, and she contributes regularly to SCOTUSBlog. At Penn, she teaches Constitutional Law and continues to engage in active legal practice through litigation, amicus briefs, and advising on key constitutional cases such as 303 Creative v. Elenis and Bostock v. Clayton County.

Before joining Penn, Shanor worked as a lawyer in the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Legal Department, contributing to the organization’s Supreme Court litigation and national strategy, including Masterpiece Cakeshop. She also served as a fellow at Georgetown University Law Center’s Center on National Security & the Law, litigating constitutional and national security cases such as Humanitarian Law Project v. Holder. A graduate of Yale College, Yale Law School, and Yale University (PhD in Law), Shanor clerked for Judges Cornelia T.L. Pillard and Judith W. Rogers on the D.C. Circuit and Judge Robert W. Sweet in the Southern District of New York.

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