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Circuit court judge to speak at Akron Law event
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: March 1, 2019
Are attorneys in the United States relying too heavily on the federal Constitution and U.S. Supreme Court when seeking relief from state criminal prosecutions or state and local laws?
According to 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Jeffrey Sutton that’s exactly what has been happening.
On March 5 Judge Sutton will make his case as to why he believes state constitutions are being overlooked by attorneys and discuss the potential unintended consequences during The University of Akron School of Law’s Regula Lecture.
“State constitutional law is the Rodney Dangerfield of American law; it doesn’t get the respect it deserves,” said Judge Sutton, former Ohio Solicitor General. “All too often when we think of Constitutional law we focus on the U.S. Supreme Court. By nationalizing our approach, attorneys overlook local solutions that are available to them.”
“The Regula Lecture has been a featured event over the last 11 years,” said Tracy Thomas, director of the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron Law.
“Our Regula Lecture is named after Ralph Regula, a U.S. Representative from Canton, Ohio who was instrumental in the bipartisan effort to establish the Center for Constitutional Law at Akron,” said Thomas, John F. Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law.
“Our Center for Constitutional Law was established by Congress in 1986 and is one of four in the country that is dedicated to legal research on constitutional issues.
“Our speaker last year was Larry Solum, a law professor from Georgetown Law,” she said. “I think Judge Sutton’s lecture will be of particular interest to lawyers and law students.”
During the March 5 event, Judge Sutton will be discussing his new book “51 Imperfect Solutions: States and the Making of American Constitutional Law,” in which he argues that relying on the high court when addressing local social problems may not only backfire but also politicizes the U.S. Supreme Court, leading to heated battles over the selection of justices.
“My book contains four stories that arise in four different areas of constitutional law: equal protection, criminal procedure, privacy and free speech/free exercise of religion,” said Judge Sutton.
“One of the stories is about school funding and focuses on the 1973 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez,” said Judge Sutton.
“The high court held that there is no federal constitutional right to equal funding between rich and poor school districts,” said Judge Sutton. “In the 46 years since that decision, however, at least two-thirds of the state supreme courts have recognized such a right under their state constitutions.
“Contrary to conventional wisdom, state courts can be powerful protectors of individual liberties and sometimes the most ardent supporters of those liberties.”
Judge Sutton, who teaches at Harvard Law School and The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law, said he wants to impress upon Akron Law students that they have two shots at winning their cases, the state constitution and the U.S. Constitution.
“I want to see them take advantage of both shots,” said Judge Sutton. “No basketball player who gets two free throws only takes one, so why are attorneys so willing to forego state solutions?”
The Regula Lecture featuring Judge Sutton gets underway at 12:15 p.m. on March 5 in the Brennan Courtroom. Registration is not required and the event is open to the public.
The upcoming event is not the only one to take place at the Center for Constitutional Law this year.
On Jan. 25, the center joined hands with the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics in sponsoring a half-day symposium entitled “50 Years with the 25th Amendment: When a President is Unable to Discharge the Duties of Office.”
The Akron Press Club’s monthly luncheon kicked off the symposium, with national commentator Norman J. Ornstein giving the keynote address. Ornstein is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
“The symposium was designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 25th Amendment,” said Thomas. “It focused exclusively on Section Four of the amendment in which the vice president and cabinet can remove a sitting president from office because of a disability.
“We chose to focus on the provision because of recent calls by some to invoke the amendment in order to remove President Donald Trump from office,” she said. “The Constitutional Law Center often addresses hot political issues, but we focus on explaining the legal issues as opposed to taking a side on the issue.”
The symposium took place at the C. Blake McDowell Law Center and included two panels, with experts discussing topics such as the role of medical professionals in the amendment’s implementation and the value of promoting presidential continuity.
“Fordham Law Professor John Feerick, an original drafter of the amendment and Yale School of Medicine Assistant Clinical Professor in Law and Psychiatry
Dr. Bandy X. Lee, a recent advocate of invoking Section Four, both spoke at the conference as part of the panel discussion.
The entire conference can be seen in the video posted on the center’s website at (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=de2cqx4otao). Papers from the symposium will be published in a forthcoming issue of the center’s online journal ConLawNOW.