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Conference on Barry Friedman's "The Will of the People" at Michigan State University

By Lawrence Solum

 I am blogging this evening from East Lansing Michigan, where a marvelous conference on Barry Friedman's new book, The Will of the People, has just gotten started.  Friedman started the conference with a keynote address that combined a serious discussion of the book's central points with his characteristic low-key humor.

Here is the conference description: 

In The Will of the People, Barry Friedman challenges the countermajoritarian difficulty by showing that the Supreme Court has always been subject to a higher power: the American public. He claims that for at least the past 60 years, the justices have made sure that their decisions do not stray too far from public opinion. His path-breaking account of the relationship between popular opinion and the Supreme Court?from the Declaration of Independence to the end of the Rehnquist court in 2005?details how the American people came to accept their most controversial institution and, in doing so, helped shape the meaning of the Constitution.

This symposium will respond to Barry Friedman's The Will of the People from a range of disciplinary perspectives. The Michigan State Law Review is bringing together a distinguished group of scholars of American constitutional history, law and politics, constitutional theory, and comparative constitutionalism to participate in the event and contribute essays based on their reactions to Professor Friedman's book.

And here is the impressive lineup of speakers:

Clifford J. Carrubba, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emory University

Barry Friedman, Vice Dean, Jacob D. Fuchsberg Professor of Law, New York University School of Law

Amanda Frost, Associate Professor of Law, American University Washington College of Law

Anna L. Harvey, Associate Professor of Politics, New York University

Corinna Barrett Lain, Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law

Stefanie A. Lindquist, The Thomas W. Gregory Professorship in Law, The University of Texas Law School

Kevin T. McGuire, Professor of Political Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

William Novak, Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School

Edward A. Purcell, Jr., Joseph Solomon Distinguished Professor of Law, New York Law School

Lori A. Ringhand, Associate Professor of Law, University of Georgia School of Law

Neil S. Siegel, Professor of Law and Political Science, Duke University School of Law

Lawrence B. Solum, John E. Cribbet Professor of Law and Philosophy, University of Illinois College of Law

Glen Staszewski, Associate Dean for Research and Associate Professor of Law, Michigan State University College of Law

Georg Vanberg, Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies, and Co-Director of the Undergraduate Honors Program, Department of Political Science, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The main event is tomorrow here in East Lansing--it should be a lot of fun!

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on April 08, 2010 (boomark / email).