Notre Dame - Constitutional Studies Lectures

"What it Means to be Human: The Case for the Body in Public Bioethics" - a panel discussion on the recent book by O. Carter Snead.

With: Mary Ann Glendon, Harvard; Ross Douthat, NY Times; Rod Dreher, American Conservative; and O. Carter Snead, ND Law

A Debate with Sai Prakash, University of Virginia, and John Yoo, University of California at Berkley School of Law, and Dean Reuter

General Counsel and Vice President & Director, Practice Groups, The Federalist Society.

Saikrishna Prakash’s scholarship focuses on separation of powers, particularly executive powers. He teaches Constitutional Law, Foreign Relations Law and Presidential Powers at the Law School. Prakash’s most recent book, “The Living Presidency: An Originalist Argument Against Its Ever-Expanding Powers,” was published by Harvard Belknap Press in 2020. He also authored “Imperial from the Beginning: The Constitution of the Original Executive” (Yale University Press, 2015). The former book focuses on the modern presidency while the latter considers the presidency of the Founders.

John Yoo is the Emanuel Heller Professor of Law and director of the Korea Law Center, the California Constitution Center, and the Law School’s Program in Public Law and Policy. His most recent book is Defender in Chief: Donald Trump’s Fight for Presidential Power (St. Martin’s 2020). Professor Yoo is a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Helen Alvaré is a Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University, where she teaches Family Law, Law and Religion, and Property Law. She publishes on matters concerning marriage, parenting, non-marital households, and the First Amendment religion clauses.

In addition to her books, and her publications in law reviews and other academic journals, Professor Alvaré publishes regularly in news outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Huffington Post, and CNN.com.

A virtual conversation with Henry Olsen and Ruy Teixeira, prominent pollsters and political commentators on different sides of the aisle, on the 2020 election.

Event took place on October 29, 2020.

About the speakers:

Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist focusing on politics, populism, and American conservative thought and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center Olsen began his career as a political consultant at the California firm of Hoffenblum-Mollrich. After three years working for the California Assembly Republican Caucus, he returned to school to become a lawyer. Following law school he clerked for the Honorable Danny J. Boggs on the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and as an associate in the Philadelphia office of Dechert, Price & Rhoads. He then joined the think tank world where he spent the next eighteen years as an executive at a variety of institutions, serving as the President of the Commonwealth Foundation, a Vice President at the Manhattan Institute, and as Vice President and Director, National Research Initiative, at the American Enterprise Institute. He left AEI in 2013 to pursue a career in political analysis and writing at EPPC. During that time his work has appeared in variety of leading publications in America and the United Kingdom. He is the author or co-author of two books, “The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism” and (with Dante J. Scala) “The Four Faces of the Republican Party”. His biennial election predictions have been widely praised for the uncanny accuracy, and he is a frequent guest on television and radio programs. Olsen regularly speaks about American political trends and global populism in the United State, Europe, and Australia.

Ruy Teixeira is a senior fellow at American Progress. He is also co-director of the States of Change: Demographics and Democracy project, a collaboration that brings together the Center for American Progress, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Democracy Fund's Voter Study Group and demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution. The goals of the project are to document and analyze the challenges to democracy posed by the rapid demographic evolution of the United States from the 1970s to the year 2060 and to promote a wide-ranging and bipartisan discussion of America’s demographic future and what it portends for political parties and the policy challenges they—and the country—face. His most recent book is The Optimistic Leftist: Why the 21st Century Will Be Better Than You Think. His other books include The Emerging Democratic Majority; America’s Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters; The Disappearing American Voter; and Red, Blue, and Purple America: The Future of Election Demographics. Teixeira’s book The Emerging Democratic Majority, written with John Judis in 2002, was the most widely discussed political book of that year and generated praise across the political spectrum, from George Will on the right to E.J. Dionne on the left. It was selected as one of the best books of the year by The Economist. Teixeira’s recent writings for American Progress include “America’s Electoral Future: The Coming Generational Transformation” and “The Path to 270 in 2020”. Recent essays include "Can Biden Hold the Democrats Together?" (Wall Street Journal) and "Demography Is Not Destiny" (Persuasion). A complete list of recent publications can be found on his website, The Optimistic Leftist, where he also blogs regularly. Teixeira holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

On Jan 19, 2021, This virtual discussion was hosted by Notre Dame Constitutional Studies. Karin Agness Lips, Network of enlightened Women (New), and Alexandra DeSanctis '16, National Review.

Alexandra DeSanctis '16 is a staff writer for National Review and a visiting fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She was previously a William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism with the National Review Institute.

Karin Lips is the Founder and President of the Network of enlightened Women (NeW), the nation’s premier organization for conservative university women. She is the Editor of She’s Conservative: Stories of Trials and Triumphs on America’s College Campuses and a Senior Fellow with the Independent Women’s Forum. She earned her law degree from the University of Virginia and was a Spring 2016 Resident Fellow at the Harvard Institute of Politics.

Presented by the Constitutional Studies program at the University of Notre Dame.

"ND Constitutional Studies Conversations: Judges Amy Barrett and Amul Thapar" - March 28, 2019, at the University of Notre Dame. A conversation with ND's undergraduate Tocqueville Fellows, moderated by Professor Vincent Phillip Muñoz, and presented by the Constitutional Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame. constudies.nd.edu

Christina Wolbrecht is a Professor of Political Science, Director of the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy, and the C. Robert and Margaret Hanley Family Director of the Washington Program at the University of Notre Dame, where I teach and write about American politics, political parties, gender and politics, and American political development. Her recent book, with Kevin Corder, is A Century of Votes for Women: American Elections Since Suffrage (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Event presented by the Potenziani Program in Constitutional Studies and the Tocqueville Program at the University of Notre Dame.

"How to Think About The Federalist" - Thursday, August 27, 2020. NDCS Virtual event.

Charles Kesler is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, Editor of the Claremont Review of Books, and the Dengler-Dykema Distinguished Professor of Government at Claremont McKenna College.

Presented by the University of Notre Dame Constitutional Studies Program

The Constitutional Studies Program at the University of Notre Dame, along with the Dean's Fellows, present a panel discussion on "The Trump Impeachment." Panelists include: Sarah Burns, Rochester Institute of Technology; Geoffrey Layman, Notre Dame; and

Aníbal Pérez-Liñán, Notre Dame. February 11, 2020 at the University of Notre Dame. constudies.nd.edu

"Islamic Law and International Law: Peaceful Resolution of Disputes", a book launch and panel discussion on the recent book by Emilia Justyna Powell (Notre Dame), including Prof. Powell, Mahan Mirza (Notre Dame), and Beth Simmons (University of Pennsylvania). Thursday, January 30, 2020, at the University of Notre Dame. constudies.nd.edu