Alabama Constitutional Reformer to Deliver Bloom Lecture at UA’s Blount Undergraduate Initiative

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Constitutional reformer, tax expert and University of Alabama law professor Susan Pace Hamill, whose attack on taxes from a theological standpoint has earned her nationwide attention, will deliver the fifth annual Estan and Star Bloom Lectureship in UA’s Blount Undergraduate Initiative Monday, April 3, at 4 p.m. in the Ferguson Theatre on the UA campus.

Hamill will speak on “The Exciting and Challenging Moral Obligations of Alabama’s College Graduates to Improve Our State by Tapping into its Vast and Great Potential.” Her lecture will include a discussion on the history and future of Alabama’s constitution.

She has gained national publicity for her stand against tax injustice in the country, especially in Alabama and has grounded her debate in Christian principles. Her case addresses the gap she perceives between Christian principles and the Alabama tax code. Her argument is based on biblical scripture which advocates relieving taxes on the poor, a reverse of what is occurring today in Alabama.

Hamill received her juris doctor of law from Tulane University and her master of laws in taxation from New York University, as well as a master’s degree in theological studies from the Beeson Divinity School at Samford University. She completed her thesis at Samford University entitled “An Argument for Tax Reform Based on Judeo-Christian Ethics.” It compared tax code to scriptural tenants which called for economic justice for the underprivileged and was subsequently published. Her most recent scholarship also criticizes current federal tax policy trends on faith-based moral grounds.

Hamill has been an associate professor of law in UA’s School of Law since 1994, focusing in the areas of tax law, business organizations and ethics. Before joining the law faculty, professor Hamill practiced tax law with the New York City law firms of Sullivan and Cromwell and Chadbourne and Parke and served as a government attorney for the Chief Counsel’s Office of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington, D.C.

She has also published numerous articles focusing on business organizations, especially limited liability companies. She has been a witness for the plaintiffs in Knight v. Alabama, a lawsuit being appealed in the 11th Circuit Court of Alabama, which is challenging Alabama’s property tax structure on race-based equal protection grounds.

Additionally, she has authored an amicus curiae brief on the plaintiff’s behalf. Hamill also serves on the board of directors of the Wesley Foundation at UA, the Alabama Poverty Project, and Turning Point, an organization dedicated to helping victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in West Alabama.

“Professor Hamill’s lecture will address matters of political philosophy that students in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative have studied this semester, including texts by John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Stuart Mill,” said Dr. Salli Davis, associate professor emerita of English and a faculty member in the Blount Undergraduate Initiative. “But the particular focus will be local and pertinent to the realities of Alabama politics.”

Endowed by Estan and Star Bloom of Tuscaloosa, the lectureship is designed to bring prominent scholars, researchers and writers to the University as part of the Blount Undergraduate Initiative in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The lecture is intended for a non-technical audience and is free and open to the public.

Established in 1999 with a $14 million private endowment, the Blount Undergraduate Initiative is designed to provide the atmosphere of a small liberal arts college in the heart of the University’s larger, comprehensive research campus. The Blount Undergraduate Initiative, a four-year program for highly motivated students, emphasizes learning as a way of living, a broadly based liberal arts education that developed strong critical thinking skills, the ability to integrate knowledge, and the use of knowledge for the public good. The program is named for the late Winton and Carolyn Blount of Montgomery, who helped established to program with a $7 million endowment.

The College of Arts and Sciences is Alabama’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division with 350 faculty and 6,600 students.

Contact

Nelda Sanker, Communications Specialist, 205/348-8539, nsanker@as.ua.edu