Join members of the League of Women Voters of Newton (LWVN) on Sunday, September 15 from 5:00 to 6:30 pm at the Durant Kenrick House (286 Waverley Avenue, Newton) as LWVN hosts a community discussion led by constitutional law professor, Jed Shugerman. We will be talking about our constitution and how it is holding up; is our constitution still working the way it was intended? is there still a balance of powers among the three branches of government? is the Supreme Court still an independent branch of government or should structural changes be made? what about the independence of the Fed, the Attorney General and the Department of Justice? are we near a constitutional crisis?
Jed Shugerman, a Newton resident and former Bowen PTO co-chair, is a law professor and legal historian at Fordham University in New York. He teaches torts, administrative law and constitutional history. Jed is the author of The People’s Courts: Pursuing Judicial Independence in America (2012), on the evolution of judicial elections and politics in America. He is working on a new book, The Rise of the Prosecutor Politicians, on the history of American prosecutors and mass incarceration. His articles often appear in law reviews and major national newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic. He appears on MSNBC, CNN and CBC to discuss legal issues, and he writes about law and politics at shugerblog.com and on Twitter @jedshug.
A question and answer session and open discussion will follow after Mr. Shugerman’s presentation. RSVPs to [email protected] are appreciated!
From reading Prof. Shugerman’s writings, this event is sure to be a Trash Trump event, certainly appealing to many Newton residents and readers here.
I don’t think the Constitution has adapted all that well to the needs of a modern society. I have difficulty applauding how it has been interpreted and reinterpreted in recent years. It’s apparent now that the First Amendment has been interpreted to mean that massive amounts of hidden cash can be dumped into political campaigns and into opaque and unaccountable Super PACs while the Second Amendment gives impetus to anyone to grab a military assault weapon and shoot up anything and anyone they want. And don’t get me started on the Electoral College or the wacko interpretation that corporations are people and entitled to full rights of citizenship.
We constantly pat ourselves on the back for having the best system of representative government in the Western world, but that’s no longer true and the way our Constitution has been interpreted is part of the problem. The proof is in the pudding. My grandparents left Ireland in the 1870s for this “sweet land of liberty” to escape political and economic repression, but the most recent Economist Magazine analysis of worldwide political health and democracy now has the US plunging to 25th place while Holy Ireland has climbed to the 6th most vibrant democracy, tied with Canada. I have dual citizenship there, but am too old to consider a move back across the pond. And , in truth, I wouldn’t really want to.
Yes, absolutely we are on the verge of a constitutional crisis, and we creep closer to it every day. People need to be waking up. I look forward to questioning Mr. Shugarman about the latest information available.