Is our Constitution undemocratic? Should Supreme Court justices be restricted to an 18-year term limit? Do we have a presidential autocracy? These were just some of the questions debated at a two-day conference March 16–17 honoring alumnus Sanford V. Levinson’s new book, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (And How We the People Can Correct It). Levinson ’73, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, was joined on panel discussions by several Stanford constitutional experts, including Professor of Law and President Emeritus Gerhard Casper; Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law Pamela S. Karlan; Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Dean Larry Kramer; and Stanley Morrison Professor of Law and former dean Kathleen M. Sullivan.

“It is, of course, especially gratifying to have one’s legal alma mater organize such an event,” says Levinson, “and I deeply appreciate the efforts particularly of Kathleen Sullivan, its primary organizer. It is also important to me, though, that such distinguished members of the Stanford faculty are willing to take the ideas presented in my book seriously, whether or not they agree with them. One of the major aims of the book is to generate a long overdue conversation about the adequacy of the Constitution for 21st-century America, and Stanford Law School has played a major role in doing precisely that.”

A video of the event, hosted by the Stanford Constitutional Law Center, can be downloaded at www.law.stanford.edu/program/centers/conlaw.