Mind the Gap: How Law Can Address Income Inequality in America

On October 23rd, the American Constitution Society convened a panel of experts for a discussion on the causes, effects, and solutions to income inequality in the United States.  The speakers discussed how tax law, labor law, and antitrust law might all be used to curb inequality and the widening racial wealth gap and what constitutional potholes advocates should avoid. Read the discussion's major takeaways.

Lisa Cylar Barrett, Director of Policy, NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc.

Lina Khan, Academic Fellow, Columbia Law School and Counsel, U.S. House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial and Administrative Law

Anne Marie Lofaso, Arthur B. Hodges Professor of Law, West Virginia University College of Law

Ganesh Sitaraman, Chancellor Faculty Fellow and Professor of Law, Vanderbilt Law School

Dora Chen, Assistant General Counsel, Service Employees International Union, Moderator

Resources on Income Inequality in America  

• The Shaky Case Against Wealth Taxation by Reuven Avi-Yonah
• Letter from Lisa Cylar Barrett by PolicyLink
• Should the Law Do Anything about Economic Inequality by Matthew Dimick
• How Rising Inequality Has Widened the Justice Gap by Robert H. Frank
• A Wealth Tax is Constitutional by Calvin H. Johnson
• Amazon’s Antitrust Paradoxby Lina Khan
• The Supreme Court just quietly gutted antitrust law by Lina Khan
• Professor: Income Inequality May Threaten US Democracy by Colleen Leahy
• Workers’ Rights as Natural Human Rights by Anne Marie Lofaso
• In Defense of Public-Sector Unions by Anne Marie Lofaso
• Can the Courts Strike Down Right-to-Work? by Shaun Richman
• Our Constitution Wasn’t Built for This by Ganesh Sitaraman
• How to Regulate Tech Platforms by Ganesh Sitaraman
• The Crisis of the Middle-Class Constitution by Ganesh Sitaraman