Institute of Bill of Rights Law
Encyclopedia
Constitutional law
Constitutional law is the body of law which defines the relationship of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary....
. It is located at the William & Mary School of Law in Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg, Virginia
Williamsburg is an independent city located on the Virginia Peninsula in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area of Virginia, USA. As of the 2010 Census, the city had an estimated population of 14,068. It is bordered by James City County and York County, and is an independent city...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The IBRL focuses on enhancing a scholarly understanding of the nation's Bill of Rights
United States Bill of Rights
The Bill of Rights is the collective name for the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. These limitations serve to protect the natural rights of liberty and property. They guarantee a number of personal freedoms, limit the government's power in judicial and other proceedings, and...
by hosting an annual "Supreme Court Preview" that brings together constitutional and legal experts from the top law schools in the United States, as well as reporters and affiliates from the nation's leading news outlets. It also enables research fellow
Research fellow
The title of research fellow is used to denote a research position at a university or similar institution, usually for academic staff or faculty members. A research fellow may act either as an independent investigator or under the supervision of a principal investigator...
s to conduct constitutional research with law professors at the law school, and co-sponsors the Constitutional Conflicts book series with Duke University Law School.
2010 Supreme Court Preview
The 23rd annual Supreme Court Preview was held September 24-25, 2010. In addition to reviewing the Supreme Court's forthcoming docket, panels were held on Perry v. SchwarzeneggerPerry v. Schwarzenegger
Perry v. Schwarzenegger is a federal lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California challenging the federal constitutionality of Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot initiative that amended the California Constitution to restrict marriage to opposite-sex couples,...
, the same-sex marriage case then on appeal before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and on the constitutionality of the recently passed health insurance mandate
Health insurance mandate
A health insurance mandate is either an employer or individual mandate to obtain private health insurance, instead of a National Health Service or National Health Insurance.-United States:...
. Panelists included four former Solicitors General, Jeffrey Sutton
Jeffrey Sutton
Jeffrey S. Sutton is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.- Early life :Sutton received his B.A. from Williams College in 1983...
(U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit), Professors of Law from Yale Law School
Yale Law School
Yale Law School, or YLS, is the law school of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Established in 1824, it offers the J.D., LL.M., J.S.D. and M.S.L. degrees in law. It also hosts visiting scholars, visiting researchers and a number of legal research centers...
and Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School is a graduate school at Stanford University located in the area known as the Silicon Valley, near Palo Alto, California in the United States. The Law School was established in 1893 when former President Benjamin Harrison joined the faculty as the first professor of law...
, and Supreme Court correspondents for five major national publications.
2009 Supreme Court Preview
The 22nd annual Supreme Court Preview was held October 2–3, 2009, at William & Mary School of Law. Sandra Day O'ConnorSandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor is an American jurist who was the first female member of the Supreme Court of the United States. She served as an Associate Justice from 1981 until her retirement from the Court in 2006. O'Connor was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981...
, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
(retired) and Chancellor of The College of William & Mary, was the distinguished guest. Panelists included Beth Brinkman (Deputy Assistant Attorney General), Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky is an American lawyer and law professor. He is a prominent scholar in United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure...
(Dean, University of California, Irvine School of Law
University of California, Irvine School of Law
The University of California, Irvine School of Law is the law school at the University of California, Irvine . It is the fifth law school in the UC system and the first public law school to open in California in 40 years...
), two former Solicitors General of the United States, and noted journalists and law professors from all over the United States.
2008 Supreme Court Preview
The 21st annual Supreme Court Preview was held September 26–27, 2008, again at William & Mary's Law School. Panelists included appellate judges from the Sixth, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Circuits; journalists from CNNCNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
and The Los Angeles Times; and some of the foremost Supreme Court advocates and legal scholars in the country.
2007 Supreme Court Preview
The 20th annual Supreme Court Preview, sponsored by the IBRL, was held September 14–15, 2007 at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law. Speakers included Erwin ChemerinskyErwin Chemerinsky
Erwin Chemerinsky is an American lawyer and law professor. He is a prominent scholar in United States constitutional law and federal civil procedure...
, Walter E. Dellinger III
Walter E. Dellinger III
Walter Estes Dellinger III is the Douglas B. Maggs Professor of Law at Duke University and head of the appellate practice at O’Melveny & Myers in Washington, D.C. He also currently leads Harvard Law School's . He served as the acting United States Solicitor General for the 1996-1997 Term of the...
, John Yoo
John Yoo
John Choon Yoo is an American attorney, law professor, and author. As a former official in the United States Department of Justice during the George W...
, Michael W. McConnell
Michael W. McConnell
Michael William McConnell is a constitutional law scholar who served as a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit from 2002 until 2009. Since 2009, Judge McConnell has served as Director of the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at Stanford Law School...
, Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse
Linda Greenhouse is the Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence and Joseph M. Goldstein Senior Fellow at Yale Law School...
, Dahlia Lithwick
Dahlia Lithwick
-External links:*...
, Stuart Taylor Jr.
Stuart Taylor Jr.
Stuart Taylor Jr. is a regular columnist for National Journal, a Contributing Editor at Newsweek and a Nonresident Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution...
, Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz
Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz is the former Solicitor General of Texas, a position he held from 2003 to May 2008. Cruz was appointed by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott. He was the first Hispanic Solicitor General in Texas, the youngest Solicitor General in America and the longest to hold the...
and William & Mary's own William Van Alstyne
William Van Alstyne
William Warner Van Alstyne is an American lawyer, law professor, and constitutional law scholar. He currently holds the named position of Lee Professor of Law at William and Mary Law School....
. A September 15 panel on The Roberts Court (featuring Chemerinsky, Yoo and Greenhouse) was aired on C-SPAN
C-SPAN
C-SPAN , an acronym for Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network, is an American cable television network that offers coverage of federal government proceedings and other public affairs programming via its three television channels , one radio station and a group of websites that provide streaming...
.