CENTER
FOR LEGAL POLICY INVITES YOU TO A LUNCHEON BOOK FORUM
THURSDAY,
NOVEMBER 8, 2007
UNION
CLUB
SPEAKER: Richard A. Epstein Visiting Scholar ,
Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal PolicyJames Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law ,
University of ChicagoPeter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow , Hoover Institution
ON: NEITHER
LIBERAL NOR CONSERVATIVE:
Commentators on the United States Supreme Court often talk of
“liberal” or “conservative” justices and legal
rulings. In
an evening lecture in the Center for Legal Policy’s fall
series “Law, Litigation, and State Power,” Manhattan
Institute
Visiting Scholar Richard Epstein argues that such facile characterizations
miss the point.
Professor Epstein’s view, instead, focuses on how the Constitution
could, should, and once did limit the government’s power.
Professor Epstein first developed his thesis with regard to expansive
powers of taxation and regulation at both the federal and state
level in his seminal Takings: Private Property and the Power
of Eminent Domain . His sequel Bargaining With the State
examined the flip side of that question, exploring the limits
of government power to give benefits to various private individuals
and groups. Professor Epstein grounded his view historically last
year in his book How Progressives Rewrote the Constitution, which
traces the decline of the classical model of government as it
pertains to issues of both federalism and individual rights.
As the Supreme Court begins a new term tackling various cases
of constitutional import, Professor Epstein’s talk promises
to shed light on the chief legal issues that drive so much of
our current political discussion.
