Ultra-Wrong About the Ultra-Right

A Review of Packing the Courts: The Conservative Campaign to Rewrite the Constitution by Herman Schwart

Agency Autonomy and the Unitary Executive

As moderator of this distinguished panel, I shall try to set the scene. I shall argue that we must separate two important issues: the first, separation of powers, raises issues of constitutional law; and the second, Presidential control of agency decision making, raises issues of fair and effective government. In discussing each, I shall raise a few points designed to lead you to conclude that the two sets of issues do not have much to do with each other, that the second set of issues is far more important than the first, and that at the heart of the second set lies the question of governmental coordination of both substantive policy and relevant law. Whether I succeed or not, we shall then go on to hear from Judge Silberman, a judicial expert on separation of powers, from Professor Elliot, who, as General Counsel of EPA, can examine the coordination problem from an agency\u27s point of view, and Mr. Eastland, a former high Justice Department official, familiar with its perspectives, problems and needs

Federal Judicial Selection

“The First Two Centuries”: The first panel explored the provisions that the drafters made in the United States Constitution for federal judicial selection and traced the two-century history of the selection process following the constitution\u27s adoption. The panel consisted of Charles Cooper, Esq. of Cooper & Kirk PLLC; Gary L. McDowell, Haynes Professor of Leadership Studies and Political Science at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies; and Ms. Maeva Marcus, of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society. Rodney A. Smolla, the George E. Allen Chair in Law, served as program coordinator and moderator. “Modern Federal Judicial Selection”: The second panel explored modern federal judicial selection, tracing the selection process over the last two decades and analyzing how it has grown increasingly contentious. The panel consisted of Theresa M. Beiner, of the William H. Bowen School of Law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock; Sheldon Goldman, Department of Political Science University of Massachusetts; Judge Edith Jones, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit; and William P. Marshall, the Kenan Professor of Law University of North Carolina School of Law. Carl W. Tobias, Williams Professor of Law at the University of Richmond School of Law, served as moderator. “The Prospects of Reform”: The third panel explored numerous suggestions for remedying or ameliorating the difficulties that pervade modern federal judicial selection and the prospects for these measures\u27 success. The panel consisted of Terry Eastland, Publisher of The Weekly Standard; Michael Gerhardt, Hanson Professor of Law at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary; and Sanford V. Levinson, The W. St. John Garwood Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government at the University of Texas School of Law. Gary L. McDowell, the Haynes Professor of Leadership Studies and Political Science at the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, served as moderator

Ultra-Wrong About the Ultra-Right

A Review of Packing the Courts: The Conservative Campaign to Rewrite the Constitution by Herman Schwart