People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law

Please join us for this Law & Democracy Series Lecture with David Sloss, Professor of Law, Santa Clara University.

David L. Sloss, Professor of Law at Santa Clara University is writing a book called “People v. The Court: The Next Revolution in Constitutional Law” and he will host a talk on the upcoming book. The book presents a normative theory of judicial review that builds on John Hart Ely’s theory. Current constitutional doctrine is at odds with core constitutional values. We divide Con Law into rights issues and structural issues. Structural Con Law focuses on the division of power among government actors. That framing omits a key structural feature of the Constitution: the division of power between We The People and our government. Constitutional rights doctrine focuses on negative, individual rights. Accordingly, constitutional doctrine ignores one crucial right: the affirmative, collective right of We the People to control our government. His theory divides constitutional issues into three baskets: rights, structure, and democratic self-government. The theory relies on a distinction between strong, weak, and deferential judicial review. In a system of strong review, judicial decisions applying the Constitution are not subject to legislative override. In a system of weak review, judicial decisions are subject to legislative override. With deferential review, courts generally defer to legislative judgments..

This lecture is part of Nebraska Law’s Law and Democracy Series, provided by generous support from Barb and Ron Schaefer.

This lecture is approved for 1.0 continuing education credit in Nebraska (including 1.0 hour of ethics). RSVP here for CLE credit: https://marketplace.unl.edu/default/peoplevcourt2025.html