Professor William Araiza Advises on Critically Acclaimed Broadway Play, “What the Constitution Means to Me”

When Professor William Araiza, a widely published constitutional law scholar, was recently quoted in The New Yorker in a preview of playwright Heidi Schreck’s autobiographical play, “What the Constitution Means to Me,” he demonstrated unique insight into the show. Araiza, as it happens, had served as an adviser to Schreck and her team on the law behind the play, which opens on Broadway in March after a critically acclaimed off-Broadway run.

Araiza first connected with Schreck at the Elevator Repair Service theater company’s performance of the play Arguendo, which was about a First Amendment case. After he participated in several audience talkbacks about the play, Araiza was contacted by Schreck to advise on her new project focusing on the Constitution.

“I explained the law to her, but also encouraged a discussion about the larger questions surrounding those issues,” he said.

A frequent commentator in the media and participant on panels and discussion groups about Constitutional Law and current events, Araiza’s teaching and scholarship focus on constitutional law and administrative law. He is the author of Animus: A Short Introduction to Bias in the Law (NYU Press, 2017) and Enforcing the Equal Protection Clause: Congressional Power, Judicial Doctrine, and Constitutional Law (NYU Press, 2016).

Read The New Yorker story here.

Find more information about the play here.