This panel will center discussion on the role of the states in our constitutional order—by focusing on states’ highest courts and their role in promoting individual rights and the development of the law. The roundtable will also explore the relationship between the state and federal courts, both historical and contemporary, as well as some of the pivotal moments that produced our modern balance of power. The speakers will also suggest ways that judges in each level of government, along with legislators and lawyers, might help improve the balance of power between states and the federal government.
The panelists will discuss the relationship between states and their municipalities. The question of localism was central to the Federalists’ and Anti-Federalists’ debates about the role of government. It was especially significant in respect to the competing interests of agrarian and urban citizens that motivated much ideological conflict in the period. Speakers will discuss how Anti-Federalist preferences for localism and Federalist preferences for nationalization helped produce our modern balance of governmental powers and legal culture. The roundtable will debate whether they see a return to localism soon and, if so, what implications this might have for constitutional governance.
Featuring:

Moderator: The Honorable Neomi Rao, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The Honorable Goodwin H. Liu, Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California
The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton, United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
Prof. Julia D. Mahoney, John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law