A Modern Constitutional Convention - The Experts Weigh in on Article V's Other Path to Amendment

Join the University of Wyoming College of Law ACS Student Chapter for a discussion on Article V featuring Professor Wilfred Codrington III, Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School; Professor Anthony Johnstone, Helen and David Mason Professor of Law and an Affiliated Professor of Public Administration at the University of Montana's Blewett School of Law; and Kate Snyder, Snyder Strategies. The conversation will be moderated by Professor Stephen M. Feldman, Jerry W. Housel / Carl F. Arnold Distinguished Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Wyoming College of Law.

Discussion will surround what a modern constitutional convention would actually look like, the potential dangers of such a movement (especially with recent political events such as the January 6th insurrection), and the groups involved in advocating for and against utilizing Article V’s alternative path to amending the Constitution.

The event is being held in-person at the University of Wyoming College of Law, Room 178, and virtually at the following Zoom link: https://uwyo.zoom.us/j/95283446260.  

SPEAKERS:

• Wilfred Codrington III is an Assistant Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School and Non-Resident Fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. His teaching and scholarship focus on matters of the Constitution, Constitutional Theory and Reform, Race, Elections, and American Democracy. He also writes on these matters in law review articles, including those appearing in the Columbia Law Review and New York University Law Review (forthcoming), as well as for popular audiences in outlets like The Atlantic, Slate, The American Prospect, U.S. News, and others. He has also written extensively on the threat of an Article V Convention and gives testimony to state lawmakers urging the defeat or repeal of legislation calling for an Article V Convention. And, as of just weeks ago, Professor Codrington is a newly published co-author of a book, The People’s Constitution: 200 years, 27 Amendments, and the Promise of a More Perfect Union, which, in part, chronicles efforts to convene a second constitutional convention. 

• Anthony Johnstone is the Helen and David Mason Professor of Law and an affiliated Professor of Public Administration at the University of Montana’s Blewett School of Law. He teaches and writes about Federal and State Constitutional Law, Legislation, Election Law, Jurisprudence, and related subjects. Professor Johnston’s scholarship has been cited more than one hundred times by judges, scholars, and practitioners. He has served as counsel in more than two dozen published cases in state and federal courts, including petition-stage or merit-stage briefs for six cases at the Supreme Court of the United States. His legal work has been featured in The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The National Law Journal, and he has testified before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee and the Montana Legislature. Before joining the School of Law, Professor Johnstone served as the Solicitor for the State of Montana, practiced litigation as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York, New York, and clerked for the Honorable Sidney R. Thomas, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School. 

• Kate Snyder has coordinated the coalition seeking to halt efforts to rewrite the U.S. Constitution through an Article V convention for the last four years. Kate has two decades of electoral and issue campaign management experience. Her focus has been on developing smarter coalition strategies, creating effective messages and directing campaign communications designed to shift the debate on key issues at both the national and state level. She received a B.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park and a M.S. from the London School of Economics. Kate, her husband Seth, their son and two rescue dogs live in Washington, DC. 

• Stephen Feldman has been the Jerry W. Housel / Carl F. Arnold Distinguished Professor of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science since 2002. He teaches classes in Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence at the University of Wyoming College of Law and has published numerous books and articles in these fields. In 2021, Professor Feldman published Pack the Court! A Defense of Supreme Court Expansion (Temple University Press). Before joining the University of Wyoming College of Law, Feldman was Professor of Law and Associate Member of Political Science at the University of Tulsa (1986-2002). He served as a Teaching Fellow at Stanford University School of Law from 1984 to1986 and as a Judicial Clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Office of Staff Attorneys. In the fall of 2016, he was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Law School. In the fall of 1999, he was a Professor in Residence in London, and in 1998, he was a National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellow.