Constitution Day Lecture

PAST CONSTITUTION DAY LECTURES:

2024: Judge Arianna Freeman '01 and Judge Stephanos Bibas, "Jurisprudence and the Pursuit of Justice"

2023: Charles Beitz, Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Politics, Princeton University, "Is the Constitution Failing?"

2022: Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law, NYU School of Law, "The Constitution, the Court, and Politics"

2021: Phil Weiser, '90, Colorado's 39th Attorney General. "Our Aspirational Constitution"

2020: Brendan Nyhan, ’00, Professor of Government, Dartmouth College.  "Is Our Democracy Eroding?: The State of American Self-Government in 2020"

2019: Daniel Korobkin ’02, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. “Of Wedding Cakes and Funeral Homes: Religious Refusals, the First Amendment, and the Supreme Court”

2018: Stephen Skowronek, Pelatiah Perit Professor of Political and Social Science, Yale University. “Has American Democracy Outstripped its Institutional Accommodations? The Adaptability Paradox in American Constitutional Development"

2017: Mark Graber, Regents Professor, University of Maryland, Francis King Carey School of Law. “Executive Power Under a Broken Constitution: Interpreting Trump’s Presidential Authority”

2016: Richard L. Hasen, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California, Irvine. “Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections”

2015: Kent Greenawalt ’58, University Professor, Columbia Law School. "The Hobby Lobby Case and Concerns about Same-Sex Marriage"

2014: David Rudovsky, Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Law School; founding partner, Kairys, Rudovsky, Messing and Feinberg. “Policing and Racial Justice”

2013: David Kairys, Professor of Law and first James E. Beasley Chair, Temple University. “Liberty and Justice for Some: The Contradictory Messages of Recent Supreme Court Speech Law”

2012: Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy, JFK School, Harvard University. “Voting Rights and Voter Suppression in America”

2011: Hon. Jed Rakoff ’64, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York. “My Neurons Made Me Do It” 

2010: Keith E. Whittington, Edwin S. Corwin Professor of Politics, Princeton University. “Repugnant Acts? Judicial Review and the Laws of Congress”

2009: Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor in the Department of Government, University of Texas. “What Exactly Should We Be Celebrating on Constitution Day?”

2008: Michael Dukakis '55, Former Massachusetts Governor and Democratic Presidential Candidate. “The 2008 Presidential Election: What’s at Stake?”

2007: Kim Lane Scheppele, Director, Program in Law and Public Affairs and Laurence S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology, Princeton University. “Small Emergencies”

2006: Ken I. Kersch, Department of Politics, Princeton University. “Thinking about American Civil Liberties Historically”

2005: Mark Graber, University of Maryland Law School and Department of Government. “Now More than Ever Maintaining and Expanding Civil Liberties in Wartime”