The College’s Law and Democracy Series invites a wide range of speakers to address the degradation of democracy, the deep polarization in our political culture, and the role of lawyers in preserving and thinking about democracy and the rule of law. This series is provided through generous support from Ron and the late Barb Schaefer and in partnership with the Nebraska Law chapters of the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society.
Discussions include such topics as election law, the possibility of a constitutional convention, and roundups of recent Supreme Court cases.
February 19, 2025 | 12:00 P.M. | Auditorium
People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law
Please join us for this Law & Democracy Series Lecture with David Sloss, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University.
David L. Sloss is writing a book called “People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law” and he will host a talk on the upcoming book.
The book presents a normative theory of judicial review that builds on John Hart Ely’s theory. Current constitutional doctrine is at odds with core constitutional values. We divide Con Law into rights issues and structural issues. Structural Con Law focuses on the division of power among government actors. That framing omits a key structural feature of the Constitution: the division of power between We The People and our government. Constitutional rights doctrine focuses on negative, individual rights. Accordingly, constitutional doctrine ignores one crucial right: the affirmative, collective right of We the People to control our government. My theory divides constitutional issues into three baskets: rights, structure, and democratic self-government.
The theory relies on a distinction between strong, weak, and deferential judicial review. In a system of strong review, judicial decisions applying the Constitution are not subject to legislative override. In a system of weak review, judicial decisions are subject to legislative override. With deferential review, courts generally defer to legislative judgments.
This event is approved for 1.0 continuing education credit in Nebraska.
Past Events
Supreme Court Roundup: A Constitution Day Discussion
September 19, 2022
Professors Eric Berger, Kyle Langvardt, and Gus Hurwitz discussed several cases from the recent Supreme Court term, with a focus on some of the lesser discussed cases. Topics included administrative law and national power, as well as individual rights.
The FBI Search of Mar-a-Largo - The 4th Amendement, FBI Procedure and Politics
October 3, 2022
Greg Stejskal, '74, special agent of the FBI for 31 years, discussed FBI search warrant procedures and protocols and what happens when a search and its aftermath are critiqued on the world stage.
A Discussion on Election Integrity
October 5, 2022
Hans von Spakovsky, former member of the Federal Election Comission and manager of the Heritage Foundation's Election Law Reform Initiative discussed election integrity.
Constitutional Rot and the Third Reconstruction
October 13, 2022
Anthony Michael Kreis, assistant professor of law at Georgia State University College of Law, discussed the current condition of the constitutional order and whether the United States is on the verge of a shift in jurisprudential thought.
Film Screening and Discussion: PURPLE
November 1, 2022
Moderators from Civic Nebraska led a series of discussions following a viewing of the documentary film PURPLE. The short film tells the story of Americans with opposing viewpoints confronting their disagreements head-on and discovering the concerns and experiences that lie behind each other's positions.
Watch the Film on YouTubeParlimentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy
February 10, 2023
Max Stearns, Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis Cary School of Law, discussed how our constitutional system is in crisis, and a new approach that argues how repairing our constitutional democracy requires changing our electoral system to embrace carefully selected features of parlimentary design.
Safeguarding American Democracy
February 14, 2023
Rick Hasen, professor of law and director of the Safeguarding Democracy project at UCLA Law, discussed the 2020 election and how it still reverberates in American politics, raising the risk that U.S. election results could be subverted by illegal action.
A Constitution In Jeopardy: An Unprecedented Effort to Rewrite Our Fundamental Law and What We can Do About It
February 21, 2023
American Consitution Society president, Senator Russ Feingold, explored a dangerous effort by factions of the Right to radically rewrite the U.S. Constitution through an Article V constitutional convention and examined the grave risks inherent in this effort.
Election Law in the Supreme Court
February 28, 2023
Jessica Ring Amunson discussed the Supreme Court's election law jurisprudence, including how that jurisprudence has changed as the Court has changed in recent years, and how the Court has treated claims that some voting laws or practices impose disparate burdens on racial or political minorities.
How Colorblindness Distorts American Democracy
March 21, 2023
Atiba Ellis, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, discussed the ideological conflict between colorblindness and race-consciousness as frames for advancing or distorting democracy and the risks posed by absolutist colorblindness in an increasingly diverse American democractic polity.
Is the United States a Democractic Influence on the World?
April 5, 2023
Professor Thomas (Tim) Borstelmann discussed whether the United States is a democractic influence on the world, highlighting issues throughout American history like settler colonialism, the American Revolution, the Civil War, U.S. imperialism overseas, the Cold War, and human rights.
Supreme Court Roundup
February 10, 2023
Professors Eric Berger, Kyle Langvardt and Paul Weitzel discussed current trends in Supreme Court jurisprudence, including recent SCOTUS decisions and their impact on American law.
Inside the Department of Justice
October 2, 2023
The Honorable Judge Chad Readler and former acting U.S. Attorney General Matt Whitaker discussed their experiences, including the highs and lows, of working at the Department of Justice.
Banned Books
October 5, 2023
Professors Daniel Gutman and Sydney Hayes discussed book bans and the First Amendment, and Vicki Wood of the Nebraska Library Association shared insights about libraries, book bans and book removals.
What Do We Mean by "Corruption?"
October 6, 2023
Richard Briffault, Joseph P. Chamberlain Professor of Legislation at Columbia Law School, focused on the contested meaning of corruption in the laws governing the electoral system and official decision-making more broadly.
The Inner and Outer Work of Democracy
November 6, 2023
Former Solicitor General of New York, Preeta Bansal, led a conversation and interactive exercise about the "inward work" of democracy - the conscience that shaped the American constitutional experiment.
Arizona Election Panel Discussion
November 13, 2023
General Counsel to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office Amy B. Chan, Arizona State Elections Director Colleen Connor, and Deputy Director of Elections for the Arizona Secretary of State Lisa Marra, discussed their perspective as attorneys in the elections field.
Separation of Powers Panel Discussion
November 20, 2023
Professor Eric Berger moderated a discussion on separation of powers issues under the Nebraska Constitution. Attorney General Mike Hilgers, State Senator Danielle Conrad, Inspector General for Child Welfare Jennifer Carter and Professor Anthony Schutz addressed separation of powers, legislative oversight, and matters related to the Offices of Inspector General for Child Welfare and Correction, specifically as they relate to Attorney General Opinion 23-008.
Diversity Statements and the First Amendment
February 26, 2024
Keith Whittington, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Politics at Princeton University discussed diversity statements and their emergence as a common component of applications for faculty positions and student admission at universities across the country.
Planting Law and Democracy in Sustainable Soil
March 5, 2024
Bruce Ledewitz, Adrian Van Kaam Endowed Chair in Scholarly Excellence and Professor Law at Duquesne University discussed how a lack of hope and disparagement of truth are endangering American public life.
Nebraska Legislature 101
March 21, 2024
Diane Amdor, Lizzie Turner, and Nicholas Grandgenett of Nebraska Appleseed explained the steps to legislation in the Nebraska Unicameral (bill introduction, committee hearings, committee votes, and the various stages of debate in the legislature) and talked about the best ways to advocate and communicate with representatives at the various steps.
September 12 & 13, 2024
Nebraska Law Review Symposium: Democracy without Trust?
This two-day symposium, brought together by the Nebraska Law Review, is a platform for timely and informed discussion, collaboration, and exchanges of ideas between law professors, researchers, attorneys, and public servants to explore the ways previously stabilizing institutions moderated extremism in our democracy. This symposium will examine the role institutions have played in supporting a stable democracy, how these institutions have lost the trust of large parts of the public on both the political right and left, and if there are potential solutions to rebuilding trust or the consequences of failing to do so.
September 17, 2024
Supreme Court Roundup
Please join members of the American Constitution Society and the Federalist Society for a discussion about current trends in Supreme Court jurisprudence. Professor Eric Berger, Professor Kyle Langvardt, and Professor Paul Weitzel will engage in a discussion about recent SCOTUS decisions and their impact on American law, followed by an opportunity for audience questions.
October 4, 2024
The Genesis and Metamorphosis of the Militia Movement into a National Domestic Terrorism Threat
The Michigan militia movement began in the late 1970s and foreshadowed the growth of the movement nationwide. As an FBI agent in Michigan, Greg Stejskal had extensive involvement with Mark Koernke, “Mark from Michigan,” one of the founders of the movement. Later Stejskal was involved in the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing, which had a substantial Michigan connection. Stejskal will discuss how elements of the militia movement have morphed into a domestic terror threat with the advent of groups such as the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. These groups were involved in the January 6th Insurrection, and some of their leadership has been convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Greg Stejskal is a graduate Nebraska Law and a member of the class of 1974. He is a retired special agent of the FBI (1975-2006). He has also authored a book, FBI Case Files Michigan – Tales of a G-Man, chronicling some of the cases in which he was involved during his career, some involving the Michigan militia.
This program has been approved for 1.0 continuing education credit in Nebraska.
October 8, 2024
PURPLE Movie Screening & Discussion
Did you know a study found that 1 in 6 Americans stopped speaking to a family member or close friend after the 2016 election? On October 8, we’re hosting a screening of a new film from Resetting the Table that captures the concerns and humanity beneath our national conflicts.
PURPLE tells the story of Americans with opposing viewpoints investigating their differences and discovering the concerns and experiences that lie behind each other’s positions. Filmed in rural Wisconsin and Iowa — in a swing region within two bordering swing states — PURPLE models a rare, mediated conversation that uplifts and inspires even while going toward the heat of passionate political differences.
The screening and post-screening discussion offer a structured opportunity to capture the thinking of the core characters on their own terms, as well as to explore the value of doing so for our democracy.
OCTOBER 15, 2024 | 12:00 P.M. | Auditorium
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment through the lens of Section 2 of the 14th Amendment - Professor Mark Graber
Mark Graber, professor of government and law at Maryland Carey School of Law, will speak on how the Supreme Court in Trump v. Anderson interpreted the constitutional processes for implementing disqualification from national office set out in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment through the lens of Section 1 of the 14th Amendment, which the court described as restricting state autonomy. This paper interprets the constitutional processes for implement disqualification from national office through the lens of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which reconstructs both state and federal governments. Section Two was to the framers the most important provision of the Fourteenth Amendment. That amendment sought to create trustworthy state governments with an even more trustworthy federal government as a backup. Under Sections 2-3, states have the power to disqualify candidates for federal office, subject to a judicial check. A judicial check is appropriate only when states have violated the substance of Section 3 and Congress has abdicated its constitutional role.
October 24, 2024
Dr. Nicholas Jacobs: The Rural Voter
Join the Rural Reconciliation Project for an online discussion with Dr. Nicholas Jacobs, co-author of The Rural Voter: The Politics of Place and the Disuniting of America.
Dr. Nicholas Jacobs is a political scientist and assistant professor of government at Colby College. His recent co-authored work, The Rural Voter, combines detailed empirical research with empathy built from real-world experience to explore the evolution of a powerful rural voting bloc in modern American politics. At a time of increasing political polarization, join the Dr. Jacobs and the Rural Reconciliation Project for an honest conversation about what divides—but could unite—rural and urban America.