Neil Weare to speak at UOG Presidential Lecture: ‘America Has a Colonies Problem’

Neil Weare to speak at UOG Presidential Lecture: ‘America Has a Colonies Problem’

Neil Weare to speak at UOG Presidential Lecture: ‘America Has a Colonies Problem’


4/15/2022

Photo of Neil Weare
Neil Weare

The University of Guam will welcome Guam-raised civil rights attorney and territories advocate Neil Weare as the featured speaker of its 42nd Presidential Lecture Series. His lecture — titled “American Has a Colonies Problem: Equal or Independent” — will be open to the public by webinar from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20.

A synopsis of his lecture follows:

Nearly 125 years after the United States acquired Guam and other overseas territories, America is in denial that it has a colonies problem. The Insular Cases remain the foundation of a colonial framework that permits discrimination in federal benefits programs, denies a right to citizenship and political participation, and stymies self-determination and decolonization. Cracks in that foundation are beginning to appear as the Supreme Court, Congress, and the White House all confront the Insular Cases. What is the future for the Insular Cases, and what is the future for the three and a half million people living under their “dark cloud”?

As the president and founder of the nonprofit civil rights organization Equally American, formerly the We the People Project, Weare is working to obtain full constitutional rights and political/economic equality for communities in U.S. territories while also supporting those communities’ right to self-determination. His work has appeared in the Yale Law Journal, Harvard Law Review, and the New York Times, and he is co-author of the forthcoming casebook “Law of U.S. Territories.”

Photo of Leevin T. Camacho
Leevin T. Camacho

Weare is a graduate of Southern High School, Piti Middle School, and Harry S. Truman Elementary School. He worked for Guam’s non-voting member of Congress, Madeleine Bordallo, prior to attending Yale Law School.

Following the lecture, Weare will have a discussion with Attorney General of Guam Leevin T. Camacho, who has represented Guam in Guam v. United States, a historic and unanimously won settlement involving a legal challenge to the CHamoru Land Trust, and who led 17 states and territories to argue for the extension of Supplemental Security Income benefits to U.S. territories in United States v. Vaello Madero.

A Q&A with the audience will conclude the event.

For more information, please contact Norman Analista, interim director of the University Events Office, at (671) 797-3333 or analistan@triton.uog.edu

Register Here