Constitutional Law Symposium
A prominent array of constitutional scholars, civil libertarians, policy analysts, lawyers, and judges gather annually at the Center for a symposium on a timely constitutional issue. The proceedings are published in the Drake Law Review.
Drake Law School and the Drake Constitutional Law Center wish to specially thank Congressman Neal Smith (1920-2021) for his support of the Constitutional Law Center and the Symposium.
For more information on the Drake Constitutional Law Center, please follow this link.
2022 Constitutional Law Symposium
The Constitution and Democratic Erosion
The 2022 Constitutional Law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 9, 2022. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event was held virtually, and was dedicated to the memory of Congressman Neal Smith, LW’50, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 101. Congressman Smith’s efforts provided foundational support for the Center and he continued to be a loyal supporter his entire life.
Presenters included Edward B. Foley, Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law; Director, Election Law at Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law; Andrea Katz, Associate Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law; David Landau, Mason Ladd Professor and Associate Dean for International Programs, Florida State University School of Law; James R. Stoner, Jr., Hermann Moyse, Jr., Professor of Political Science and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute, Louisiana State University; and Jeffrey Tulis, Professor of Government and Professor of Law, The University of Texas at Austin.
2021 Constitutional Law Symposium
Reexamining Pragmatism in Constitutional Interpretation
The 2021 Constitutional Law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 17, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event was held virtually. The symposium’s discussion reexamined pragmatism in constitutional interpretation from several different perspectives. These included feminist approaches, race-conscious views, Posnerian contexts, empirically grounded types, brand new pluralistic theories, and criticisms. It also highlighted the strengths, weaknesses, and relationships between constitutional pragmatism, and other interpretation methods.
Presenters included Brian Butler, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina (Asheville); Daniel Farber, Sho Sato Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, University of California, Berkeley; Mark Kende, Director of the Constitutional Law Center; James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law; Professor of Law, Drake University Law School; Linda C. McClain, Robert Kent Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law; and Robert Tsai, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law.
Fall 2019 Constitutional Law Symposium
Democracy and Dysfunction
The Fall 2019 Constitutional law Symposium was held on Saturday, September 21, 2019 from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Cartwright hall, Room 213 at Drake University. The event involved debate on current constitutional issues and the functioning of American democracy based upon the recent book, Democracy and Dysfunction, released by Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School and Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. Garwood Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government, University of Texas School of Law.
Presenters included Frank Buckley, Foundation Professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University; Marke Kende, James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law and Professor of Law, Drake University Law School; Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School; David Pozen, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School; Miguel Schor, Professor of Law, Drake University Law School; Franita Tolson, Professor of Law, University of Southern California, Gould School of Law.
Spring 2019 Constitutional Law Symposium
Is it time to amend the Constitution?
The Spring 2019 Constitutional law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 13, 2019 from 8 a.m. to noon in Cartwright hall, Room 213 at Drake University. Speakers included: Richard Albert, William Stamps Farish Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law; Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. Garwood Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government, University of Texas School of Law; Richard S. Kay, Wallace Stevens Professor of Law Emeritus and Oliver Ellsworth Research Professor, University of Connecticut School of Law; Lisa L. Miller, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University
2018 Constitutional Law Symposium
Is Constitutional Democracy Endangered in the U.S. and Abroad?
The 2018 Constitutional law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 14, 2018 from 8 a.m. to noon in Cartwright hall, Room 213 at Drake University. Speakers included: Elizabeth Price Foley, Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law; Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, University of Chicago Law School; John C. Reitz, Edward L. Carmody Professor of Law, University of Iowa College of Law; David Stebenne, Professor of History and Law, Ohio State University
2017 Constitutional Law Symposium
“President Obama’s Constitutional Legacy”
Link to the Drake Law Review Constitutional Law Symposium Issue
The 2017 Constitutional Law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 8, 2017 from 8 a.m. to noon in Cartwright Hall, Room 213 at Drake University. Speakers included: Tonya Lovell Banks, Jacob A. France Professor of Equality, Francis King Carey School of Law, University of Maryland; Eric Berger, Associate Dean for Faculty and Professor of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law; John Eastman, Henry Salvatori Professor of Law & Community Service, Dale E. Fowler School of Law, Chapman University; Ilya Somin, Professor of Law, George Mason University
Banks Q&A
Berger Q&A
Eastman Q&A
Somin Q&A
2016 Constitutional Law Symposium
“War Powers and the Constitution: 15 Years After 9/11”
Link to the Drake Law Review Constitutional Law Symposium Issue
The 2016 Constitutional Law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 9, 2016 from 8 a.m. to noon in Cartwright Hall, Room 213 at Drake University. Speakers included: Stephen Griffin, W.R. Irby Chair and Rutledge C. Clement, Jr. Professor in Constitutional Law, Tulane Law School; Stephen Vladeck, Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law; Mariah Zeisberg, Associate Professor, Political Science, University of Michigan; Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash, James Monroe Distinguished Professor of Law, University of Virginia
Griffin Q&A
Prakash Q&A
Vladeck Q&A
Zeisberg Q&A
2015 Constitutional Law Symposium
“Eyes and Ears Everywhere? Privacy in an Age of Government and Technological Intrusion.”
Link to the Drake Law Review Constitutional Law Symposium Issue
The 2015 Constitutional Law Symposium was held on Saturday, April 11, 2015. Speakers included: Geoffrey R. Stone, Edward H. Levi Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School and former member of President Obama’s National Security Agency Review Committee (keynote speaker); Laura Donohue, Professor of Law; Director, Georgetown’s Center on National Security and the Law; and Director, Center on Privacy and Technology; Gabriel Schoenfeld, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute and Nadine Strossen, John Marshall Harlan II Professor of Law, New York Law School and former President, American Civil Liberties Union (1991-2008).
*This program was approved for 3.5 credit hours of Iowa and Federal CLE (#180510).
2014 Constitutional Law Symposium
“The U.S. Supreme Court’s Obamacare Decision and Its Significance for the 50th Anniversary of LBJ’s Great Society”
Link to the Drake Law Review Constitutional Law Symposium Issue
The symposium was held on Saturday, April 12, 2014. Speakers included: Robert Dallek, Professor at the Stanford University Program in Washington, D.C., and author of a two volume biography on President Lyndon B. Johnson; Neil S. Siegel, David W. Ichel Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science; Co-Director of the Program in Public Law, and Director of the DC Summer Institute on Law and Policy at Duke University Law School; Jonathan H. Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law; Director, Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law; Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law, Harvard Law School; William E. Forbath, Associate Dean for Research and Lloyd M. Bentsen Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law; and Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Daniel P.S. Paul Professor of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School and Professor of History, Harvard Graduate School of Arts & Sciences.
*This program is approved for 4.5 credit hours of Iowa and Federal CLE (#129050).
Drake Law School and the Drake Constitutional Law Center wish to express their appreciation and thanks to Nate McCay, LW’80, for his support and generosity in providing funding for the 2014 Constitutional Law Symposium.
2013 Constitutional Law Symposium
“The U.S. Constitution and Political Dysfunction: Is There a Connection?”
Link to the Drake Law Review Constitutional Law Symposium Issue
The symposium was held on Saturday, April 6, 2013. Speakers included: Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law, University of Texas School of Law; Norman Ornstein, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research; Richard Hasen, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Political Science, University of California, Irvine; John McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University School of Law; Lori Ringhand, J. Alton Hosch Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law; and Brenna Findley, Legal Counsel to Iowa Governor Terry Branstad.
2012 Constitutional Law Symposium
“Constitutionalism and the Poor”
Link to the Drake Law Review Constitutional Law Symposium Issue
The symposium was held on Saturday, April 14, 2012. Speakers included Peter Edelman, Professor of Law, and Faculty Director of the Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center; john powell, Director, Haas Diversity Research Center and Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion, University of California, Berkeley; Frank Michelman, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School; Julie Nice, Herbst Foundation Professor of Law at University of San Francisco School of Law; Ilya Shapiro, Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies and Editor-in-Chief of Cato Supreme Court Review at the Cato Institute; and The Honorable Mark S. Cady, Chief Justice, Iowa Supreme Court.
2011 Constitutional Law Symposium
“Debating the Living Constitution”
The symposium was held on Saturday, April 2, 2011 from 8:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. at Drake Law School. Speakers include David Strauss, the Gerald Ratner distinguished service professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School; Keith Whittington, the William Nelson Cromwell professor of politics at Princeton University; Rebecca Brown, the Newton professor of constitutional law at the University of Southern California School of Law and Wil Waluchow, the Senator William McMaster chair in constitutional studies at McMaster University. The event featured a discussion of David Strauss’s book “The Living Constitution.”
2010 Constitutional Law Symposium
“The Same-Sex Marriage Divide”
The symposim was held on Saturday, April 10, 2010. The forum included Professors Douglas Allen from Simon Fraser University, Andrew Koppelman from Northwestern Law School, Mark Strasser from Capital University Law School, Lynn Wardle from J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU, Lee Badgett from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Economics Department, and Maggie Gallagher, President of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy.
2009 Constitutional Law Symposium
“Global Perspectives on Religion, the State, and Constitutionalism”
The symposim was held on Saturday, April 4, 2009. Speakers included Professors Abdullah An’Nain from Emory Law, Rick Garnett from Notre Dame Law, Frank Ravitch from Michigan State Law, Laura Jenkins from the University of Cincinnati, Tom Farr from the Georgetown School of Foreign Science, and Jeremy Gunn, Director of the ACLU Religion and Law Project in D.C.
2008 Constitutional Law Symposium
“The Forgotten Constitutional Amendments”
The symposim was held on Saturday, April 5, 2008 from 8:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at Drake Law School. Speakers included: Randy Barnett (Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory, Georgetown Law School), Daniel Farber (Sho Sato Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley), Kurt Lash (Professor of Law and W. Joseph Ford Fellow, Loyola Law School Los Angeles), Michael Kent Curtis (Judge Donald L. Smith Professor in Constitutional and Public Law, Wake Forest Law School), Rebecca Zietlow (Charles W. Fornoff Professor of Law and Public Values, University of Toledo Law School), David Bogen (Professor Law Emeritus, University of Maryland Law School).
2007 Constitutional Law Symposium
The ‘Undemocratic’ American Constitution”
The symposim was held on April 7, 2007 from 9:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. at Drake Law School. Speakers included Sanford V. Levinson (W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government, The University of Texas School of Law), Heather Gerken (Professor of Law, Yale Law School), Neal Devins (Goodrich Professor of Law, Professor of Government, and Director of the Institute of Bill of Rights Law, William and Mary School of Law), Donald Horowitz, the James B. Duke Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke Law School, and Saikrishna B. Prakash (Herzog Research Professor of Law, University of San Diego Law School).
2005-2006 Constitutional Law Center’s Annual Symposium
“The Role of Courts in Social Change”
The symposim was held on April 8, 2006 at the law school. Speakers included Mark Tushnet (Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center), Jane Schacter (Edwin A. Heafey Jr. Visiting Professor of Law at Stanford Law School), John Eastman (Professor of Law, Chapman University School of Law and Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Claremont Institute), Gerald Torres (Bryant Smith Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School), Gerald Rosenberg ( Associate Professor of Political Science and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago).
The 2005 symposium focused on the War on Terror and its impact concerning issues of constitutionality. The 2003 symposium analyzed U.S. Supreme Court cases challenging affirmative action in admissions at both the undergraduate and law school levels. The 2002 symposium examined the nominating and confirming process of Supreme Court justices. The 2001 symposium explored the interface between the Constitution and the Internet. In recent years, Drake has been honored to host distinguished panelists such as Akhil Amar, Stephen Carter, Erwin Chemerinsky, Lawrence Lessig and Nadine Strossen.
Drake Law Review 