The Supreme Court & Precedent
Consider landmark decisions that could be overturned & their implications for American politics.
In the Declaration of Independence, our founding generation announced our unalienable rights, and further recognized that “to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.” Soon they would write and ratify a Constitution “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity.” Finally, they elected President Washington and the first Congress, who would build institutions to actually administer our Constitution.
In short, America’s founding required ideas and institutions—and statesmen and citizen capable of both. It also required an unprecedented era of constitutional conversation among Americans, and between the United States and the world. That is the purpose of this course: pursuing a deeper understanding of our Constitution by studying the intellectual and political debates surrounding its founding, from the original ideas to the original institutions.
Image: United States Capitol (“Federal Capitol”) Floor Plan, Library of Congress
Adam White discusses the Supreme Court in American Law & Politics
This course is part of our Constitutional Studies Program. Fellows should expect to spend the morning in seminar; afternoons and some evenings will be devoted to guest speaker sessions and other class activities. All fellows receive residential accommodations and a $500 stipend to offset travel and living expenses.
Faculty
Adam J. White
Adam J. White is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on American constitutionalism. Concurrently, he codirects the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Adam J. White
Adam J. White is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on American constitutionalism, the Supreme Court, and the administrative state. Concurrently, he codirects the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Mr. White previously practiced constitutional and administrative law, particularly in the regulation of energy and the environment, finance, and telecommunications. He was a research fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an adjunct fellow for the Manhattan Institute. He started his legal career as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle at the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
The author of a wide range of essays, book reviews, law review articles, and book chapters, Mr. White has appeared in publications such as The Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, Commentary, The Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the Notre Dame Law Review. He is a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s “Notice and Comment” blog, and for many years he was one of The Weekly Standard’s primary writers on constitutional law and the Supreme Court.
Mr. White has testified before a variety of US House and US Senate committees, including the Senate Judiciary Committee; the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law (currently known as the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law); the Senate Commerce Committee; and the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
In 2017 he was appointed to serve on the Administrative Conference of the United States. He also serves on the boards of two nonprofit organizations: Speech First and the Land Conservation Assistance Network.
He has a JD from Harvard Law School and a bachelor of business administration from the College of Business at the University of Iowa.
Gary J. Schmitt
Gary J. Schmitt is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies program at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies issues related to the American presidency, the U.S. constitution and its principles, and American civic life.
Gary J. Schmitt
Gary J. Schmitt is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies program at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he studies issues related to the American presidency, the U.S. constitution and its principles, and American civic life. Dr. Schmitt also writes on national security topics.
A former minority staff director of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dr. Schmitt was executive director of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board (then known as the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board). Before joining AEI, he was executive director of the Project for the New American Century.
Dr. Schmitt is the author, coauthor, editor, and coeditor of many books. In the area of civics and constitutional studies, his books include “McCulloch v. Maryland at 200: Debating John Marshall’s Jurisprudence” (AEI Press, 2020); “The Imperial Presidency and the Constitution” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017); “Is Congress Broken? The Virtues and Defects of Partisanship and Gridlock” (Brookings Institution Press, 2017); “The Professions and Civic Life” (Lexington Books, 2016); and “Trendsetting Charter Schools: Raising the Bar for Civic Education” (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.
Vincent Phillip Muñoz
Vincent Phillip Muñoz is the Tocqueville Professor of Political Science and Concurrent Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame. He is the Founding Director of ND’s Center for Citizenship & Constitutional Government.
Dr. Muñoz writes and teaches across the fields of constitutional law, American politics, and political philosophy with a focus on religious liberty and the American Founding. He won a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to support his most recent book, Religious Liberty and the American Founding: Natural Rights and the Original Meanings of the First Amendment Religion Clauses (2022), published by the University of Chicago Press.
An award-winning teacher and a popular lecturer, Dr. Muñoz has spoken at nearly 100 colleges and universities in the past several years. He received his B.A. at Claremont McKenna College, his M.A. at Boston College, and his Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate School.
