2020 Conference

Conference Video Digest

Over a long weekend in early October, legal enthusiasts from around the country converged on Yale Law School for The Constitution in 2020 Conference. Hosted by the Yale Law chapter of the American Constitution Society, the 2020 Conference brought together top legal scholars, practitioners, and activists with several hundred audience members for in-depth discussions about the future of American constitutional law -- and American law, policy, and politics more broadly. For those who didn’t have the chance to attend, we present full streaming videos – now you can watch everything, from the opening address to closing remarks, with handy summaries and commentaries from members of the 2020 blogging team. (For links to the posts submitted by the professors in advance of the conference, click here.)


Conference Welcome

    Featuring: Dean Robert Post (Yale Law School)

America and the World
    Featuring: Bruce Ackerman (Yale Law School), Muneer Ahmad (Yale Law School), Oona Hathaway (Yale Law School), Aziz Huq (University of Chicago Law School), Jenny Martinez (Stanford Law School), and Jon Michaels (University of California Law School-Los Angeles)
 

Roundtable:  About the Constitution in 2020
    Featuring: Bruce Ackerman (Yale Law School), Jack Balkin (Yale Law School), Robert Post (Yale Law School), Neil Siegel (Duke Law School), and Reva Siegel (Yale Law School)
 

Social Rights
    Featuring: Risa Goluboff (Virginia Law School), Jacob Hacker (Yale University), Ben Sachs (Harvard Law School), and Vicki Schultz (Yale Law School)
 


Constitutional Theory

    Featuring: Jamal Greene (Columbia Law School), Paul Kahn (Yale Law School), David Law (Washington University School of Law), Sophia Lee (University of Pennsylvania Law   School), and Richard Primus (University of Michigan Law School)
 

Individual Rights
    Featuring: Elizabeth Emens (Columbia Law School), Rich Garnett (Notre Dame Law School), Paul Horwitz (University of Alabama School of Law), Dan Kahan (Yale Law School), and Alice Ristroph (Seton Hall University School of Law)
 


Localism and Democracy

    Featuring: Heather Gerken (Yale Law School), Ethan Leib (University of California Hastings School of Law), Judith Resnik (Yale Law School), Rich Schragger (University of Virginia School of Law), Ilya Somin (George Mason University School of Law), and Ernie Young (Duke Law School)
 


Roundtable: Mobilization

    Featuring: Addisu Demissie (Organizing for America), William Eskridge (Yale Law School), Marshall Ganz (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard), Judy Scott (SEIU), and Michael Wishnie (Yale Law School)
 


Roundtable: The Constitution in 2020: Getting There from Here

    Featuring: Debo Adegbile (NAACP), Marvin Ammori (Free Press/ University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law), Nan Aron (Alliance for Justice Pam Karlan, Stanford Law School), Robert Gordon (Yale Law School), and Tom Saenz (MALDEF)
  

 *Special thanks to the Brian Pauze and the Yale Law Audio-Visual Staff for taping, editing, and technical support.

Mobilization Recap: Creating Sustainable Change

Stephen Gikow

To ease you into the weekend, here are some thoughts on the Mobilization Panel from the Constitution in 2020 Conference.  The panel was comprised of a diverse group of practitioners and scholars—it was moderated by Professor Bill Eskridge, Yale Law School, and the panel participants were Marshall Ganz, Harvard Kennedy School of Government; Addisu Demissie, Organizing for America (previously Obama for America); Judy Scott, Service Employees International Union; and Professor Michael Wishnie, Yale Law School.  Since we have the video of the panel (below), I thought I would avoid summarizing each participant’s remarks.  Instead, I would like to point out a few strands to the conversation that are worth reflecting on.

Video courtesy of Yale Law School.

While the participants in the conference’s earlier panels were deeply concerned with issues of constitutional doctrine and legal policy, the Mobilization panelists were more focused on the structure of organizing, the sustainability of change, and the utilization of community resources.  The motivating factor for the organizing seemed to be the representation of the perspectives of minority groups that have been historically neglected, rather than the active creation of support for constitutional principles at the community level.

Conference Video Coming Soon

The Constitution in 2020 Conference has come and gone, but we're just getting started. We're hoping to post video of the conference panels within the next week, and we'll also have some panel-specific reaction posts once we get the video up. For now, thanks to all those who participated on this site and at the conference itself, and check back soon for the video!

Register for the Constitution in 2020 Conference - Oct. 2 -4 @ Yale Law School

The Constitution in 2020 Conference -- beginning on October 2 and running through 4 at Yale Law School -- will bring together some of the nation's top legal scholars, lawyers, and practitioners (legal and otherwise) to discuss the future of the Constitution. A list of the scheduled panels and their participants is available here.

Click here to register now. Discounted rates are available for ACS students.

The Constitution in 2020 is a companion website to The Constitution in 2020 (Oxford University Press 2009).  Here you will find ten sample chapters from the book, essays about the future of the U.S. Constitution, discussions of current constitutional issues, a bibliography and resources for further study.