On Friday September 22, 2017 from 1-2 pm, the BYU Law School will host a panel to discuss A Changing Supreme Court:  The Future of Constitutional Interpretation in the Moot Court Room (Room 303) of the J. Reuben Clark Building (JRCB).  This panel is part of both the University’s Constitution Day celebration and the Law School’s annual Supreme Court Review, at which former Supreme Court clerks on the BYU faculty and other expert faculty discuss the direction of the Supreme Court and some of the important decisions of the Supreme Court’s most recent term.

Students, faculty members, and Americans—anyone affected by the Constitution—will benefit from learning about how the future of Constitutional interpretation might affect their lives.

The 1 pm panel will feature BYU Law Professors Elizabeth Clark, John Fee, Aaron Nielson, Michalyn Steele, and Lisa Grow Sun, who will discuss how the recent appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch and other potential future appointments will affect the Court’s constitutional interpretation across different areas of the law, including issues of separation of powers and the administrative state, freedom of religion, federal Indian law, and criminal law. From 2:10-3:10 pm, there will be a final panel focused on significant opinions from the 2016 Supreme Court Term.

This year’s Supreme Court Review also features a keynote address from 11:50-12:50 pm by BYU Law Professor Justin Collings, who will explore the ways in which constitutional courts invoke–and help shape–national memory in the process of constitutional interpretation.  Specifically, his talk will discuss the ways that the constitutional courts of Germany, the United States, and South Africa have engaged with the legacies, respectively, of Nazism, slavery, and apartheid.