LevinsonFest on Reforming the U.S. Supreme Court

Guest Blogger

Ashley Moran and Richard Albert

We are thrilled to share short papers resulting from the first roundtable discussion convened as part of LevinsonFest 2022—a year-long series bringing together scholars from diverse disciplines and viewpoints to reflect on Sanford “Sandy” Levinson’s influential work in constitutional law.

This first roundtable addresses varied options and considerations on reforming the U.S. Supreme Court, with papers from Lori Ringhand (University of Georgia) providing historical context and assessing a constitutional solution, Vicki Jackson (Harvard) affirming constitutional solutions and proposing a nearer-term statutory solution, Jill Fraley (Washington & Lee) outlining public perception risks of court packing, Samuel Issacharoff (NYU) outlining political risks of varied approaches, and Sandy Levinson (University of Texas at Austin) delving into term limits, selection, and court composition.

Future LevinsonFest roundtables will run through the spring, summer, and fall, with over a dozen panels in the works on constitutional design, constitutional crises, constitutional faith, popular sovereignty, federation and secession, popular constitutionalism, public monuments, religious diversity, voting rights, the Second Amendment, law as literature, civic education, constitutional realities, comparative constitutionalism, and more. The breadth of topics conveys the wide range of pressing issues where Sandy’s work has been instrumental.

The LevinsonFest event schedule (still-in-construction) and registration links are available on the LevinsonFest website. All are welcome to attend!

The resulting papers from each roundtable will be shared here on Balkinization after each event. We are thrilled and appreciative to collaborate with Jack Balkin in this way. Balkinization has long been an important home for vibrant constitutional discourse and Sandy’s own blogging on these topics, and we are honored to continue LevinsonFest discussions here on the blog. We look forward to engaging with many of you through these events and discussions!

Ashley Moran is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Comparative Constitutions Project and Distinguished Scholar with UT’s Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law. You can contact her at ashleymoran@utexas.edu.

Richard Albert is the William Stamps Farish Professor in Law, Professor of Government, and Director of Constitutional Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. You can contact him at richard.albert@law.utexas.edu.