Rule of Law

Let’s Talk About Text

Details

Friday, June 7, 2019
11:15 am
Federal A Room
Capitol Hilton Hotel
1001 16th St NW
Washington, DC 20036
American Constitution Society

Event description authored by host organization. Information here does not necessarily reflect the views of CAC and may not be up to date — please refer to RSVP link for the latest information.


Some progressive scholars and advocates have long urged that progressives take up the mantle of textualism, arguing that the text, history and structure of the Constitution lead to progressive results. This approach may meet with more support in the coming years as progressive litigators, faced with an increasingly conservative federal judiciary, seize upon originalist and textualist arguments in the hope of winning cases. But some scholars and advocates contend that to concede any ground to conservative interpretive methodology is to ignore its fundamental falsehoods and forsake important constitutional interests. Is there a danger in signing on to a textualist or originalist approach to constitutional interpretation? How should progressives reconcile these arguments?

SPEAKERS

Hon. Robert Pratt, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Moderator
Victoria Nourse, Ralph V. Whitworth Professor in Law, Georgetown University Law Center
Jed Shugerman, Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
Robert Tsai, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law
Elizabeth Wydra, President, Constitutional Accountability Center