Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California-Berkeley, is one of America’s most honored and influential legal and Constitutional scholars. The author of fifteen books, in 2017 he was named America’s most influential legal educator by National Jurist magazine. Formerly the founding dean of the law school at the University’s Irvine campus, he received awards from both the Anti-Defamation League and the American Association of Law Schools, of which he was named president-elect in 2022, and has litigated cases before the Supreme Court.
The present symposium originated in my discovery of Chemerinsky’s latest book, the title of which struck me (as a political scientist) as remarkably vituperative, coming from such an esteemed scholar. This led me to publish a critical review of the book (adapted here) in the Washington Free Beacon. Further reflection induced me to invite three distinguished political scientists who study and teach con law, and who I knew would hold varying opinions of the book’s merits, to take part in a panel on it at the 2023 meeting of the New England Political Science Association. The editor of Perspectives, Dan Mahoney, has kindly agreed to publish an edited version of the panel proceedings in this symposium. It is hoped that this exchange of views will prove illuminating to scholars and students of the subject who themselves represent diverse perspectives on the contemporary debate over the proper mode of interpreting our Constitution.