We the People – Elon Law’s Constitutional Law Journal will present ‘Unlawful or Unprotected? 4th Amendment Rights in Criminal vs. Immigration Detention’ on Oct. 7 at Elon Law’s downtown Greensboro campus.
The right to be free from unlawful searches, seizures and detention is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, but its application in immigration investigations and detentions remains murky.
We the People – Elon Law’s Constitutional Law Journal will host a panel Tuesday, Oct. 7, where legal experts will explore how the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment applies in immigration contexts where protections are often weaker than in criminal proceedings. “Unlawful or Unprotected? 4th Amendment Rights in Criminal vs. Immigration Detention” begins at 5 p.m. and will run through 6:30 p.m.
The event is open to the public. Seating is limited and attendance is by reservation only.
The program will bring together distinguished scholars and practitioners for a conversation about recent legal developments and their impact on immigrant families and communities.
Panelists include:
- Cheri Beasley, Sandra Day O’Connor Professor at Elon Law and former Chief Justice of the N.C. Supreme Court;
- Erin Fitzgerald, Assistant Professor of Law at Elon Law; and
- Jeremy McKinney, a Greensboro-based immigration attorney with McKinney Immigration Law and past president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
The discussion will be moderated by David Levine, Professor of Law at Elon. A reception will follow the panelists’ remarks.
The conversation will highlight differences between constitutional safeguards in the criminal justice system and the more limited protections available in civil immigration detention. Panelists will consider how courts are shaping these rights through recent decisions and what the changes mean for individuals, families and communities facing detention and deportation.
For the student editors of We the People, hosting this dialogue reflects the journal’s mission to connect constitutional theory with real-world impact.
“We The People strives to be a publication where we can understand and compare constitutional systems. We do this by featuring articles across political perspectives and by featuring a variety of topics all to provide a central place where everyone can engage with the bedrock of constitutionalism,” said Dmitri McKinney L’25, editor-in-chief of We The People.
“Oftentimes, people view our Constitution is an abstraction. This event is to help demonstrate that it is not the case. The Constitution touches our lives and the lives of our neighbors in so many ways — and is something that we debate in a democratic society, giving power to all of the American people.”
About Elon Law
Elon Law is the preeminent school for engaged and experiential learning in law. With a focus on learning by doing, it integrates traditional classroom instruction with a required residency-in-practice field placement for all full-time students during the winter or spring of their second year. The law school’s distinctive full- time curriculum provides a logically sequenced program of professional preparation and is accomplished in 2.5 years, which offers exceptional value by lowering tuition and permitting graduates early entry into their careers.
Elon Law has graduated more than 1,700 alumni since opening its doors in 2006. Its annual enrollment now tops 540 students. The law school is regularly featured in PreLaw Magazine’s “Best Schools for Practical Training” rankings, maintaining an A+ rating and Top 10 placement annually since 2023. Elon Law was also among schools highlighted by Bloomberg Law in 2023 for its innovative approach to student development.
The Elon Law campus spans several buildings within a two-block radius in downtown Greensboro, which serves as the hub of the judicial system in central North Carolina. Courts a short walk from the law school include the U.S. District Court and U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. In addition, several branches of the North Carolina General Court of Justice, including the Superior, District, Drug Treatment, Mental Health and Small Claims Courts, are within walking distance. Dozens of large, medium and small law firms, as well as municipal offices, are likewise located nearby.
Elon Law is one of only a handful of law schools in the nation to house a working court with the North Carolina Business Court hearing cases in the Robert E. Long Courtroom. The Long Courtroom annually hosts oral arguments of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and has twice welcomed the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
The Elon Law Flex Program, a part-time, in-person program of legal study for working professionals, launched at Elon University’s Charlotte campus in 2024. Designed to be completed in just under four years, it enrolled its second cohort in fall 2025.