Constitution Day Celebration
Video from Constitution Day is now available.
Watch Panel 1: Lawfare and the Courts
Watch Lunch Session with Judge O’Scannlain
Watch Panel 2: Separation of Powers and the “New” Supreme Court
The Claremont Institute recently celebrated Constitution Day with Dr. John Eastman and our Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence.
Given the vacancy on the Court and the number of high-profile cases on the docket, there was much to discuss at this year’s symposium. Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit delivered the luncheon address and was awarded Claremont’s 2018 Reagan Jurisprudence Award.
SCHEDULE:
9:30am – 9:40am – Opening Remarks
9:40am – 10:00am – Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence Litigation and Supreme Court Update
10:15am – 11:45am – Panel: Lawfare and the Courts: WATCH LIVE
12:00pm – 1:15pm – Luncheon & Jurisprudence Award Presentation: WATCH LIVE
1:30pm – 3:00pm – Panel: Separation of Powers and the “New” Supreme Court: WATCH LIVE
3:15pm – 4:00pm – Closing Remarks
4:00pm – 5:00pm Cocktail Reception
Tickets: $50
SPECIAL GUEST AND SPEAKER
Janice Rogers Brown
Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 2005-2017 (overlapping Judge Brett Kavanaugh)
Associate Justice, California Supreme Court, 1996-2005
PANEL 1: LAWFARE AND THE COURTS
President Trump’s administration has been sued hundreds of times by those who unabashedly describe themselves as a “resistance” movement, which is to say, openly resisting policy changes that are the direct outgrowth of the last election. Unfortunately, we are finding an increasing number of lower federal court judges who appear to have joined the “resistance” movement by issuing nationwide injunctions to block Trump’s policy initiatives, with little or no basis in law and, in some cases, without even clear jurisdiction. Nationwide injunctions are not new—Texas and other states obtained some against some of President Obama’s more egregiously unconstitutional executive actions, for example—but they are now being weaponized in ways that not only undermine basic separation of powers principles but, because some involve foreign policy and national security matters, undermine our national security. This panel will explore this new development and the threats to republican government that it poses.
Panelists:
Ryan P. Williams
Moderator
President, Claremont Institute
John C. Eastman
Founding Director, Claremont Institute Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence
Henry Salvatori Professor of Law and Community Service, Chapman University’s Dale E. Fowler School of Law
Joseph Tartakovsky
Former Deputy Solicitor General of Nevada
Author of The Lives of the Constitution: Ten Exceptional Minds That Shaped America’s Supreme Law
Michael Toth
Former Special Counsel to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
PANEL 2: SEPARATION OF POWERS AND THE “NEW” SUPREME COURT
More than a decade ago, Claremont began urging the Supreme Court and others to revisit some of the basic administrative law doctrines that had developed in the decades since the New Deal in the 1930s—doctrines which allowed for massive transfers of legislative and judicial power to unelected bureaucrats in unaccountable administrative agencies. Justice Thomas began questioning those doctrines in several cases of note, and he was then joined by Justice Alito and even by Justice Scalia, who had authored the case that gave its name to the Auer deference doctrine but had expressed his view, shortly before his untimely death, that it should be overruled. Justice Neil Gorsuch was already expressing the same concerns in opinions he wrote while still a judge on the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, and Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has likewise expressed many of the same concerns while he’s been serving as a judge on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. This panel will explore how the “New” Supreme Court—new Justices, as well as the existing Justices who have expressed willingness to confront these issues anew—may be on the verge of a techtonic restoration of core separation of powers principles that, for our Founders, were such a critical aspect of the Constitution’s protection of liberty.
Panelists:
Keith Carlson
Moderator
Partner, Carlson & Jayakumar LLP
Janice Rogers Brown
Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 2005-2017 (overlapping Judge Brett Kavanaugh)
Associate Justice, California Supreme Court, 1996-2005
Michael M. Uhlmann
Senior Fellow, Claremont Institute
Professor of Politics and Government at Claremont Graduate University
Adam J. White
Research Fellow, Hoover Institution
Director, Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School
