Public Program: The Roger S. Aaron '64 Lecture - “Constitutional Review and a General ‘Right to Liberty’” with Mark Tushnet

Please join us for the Roger S. Aaron '64 Lecture, “Constitutional Review and a General ‘Right to Liberty,’” presented by Mark Tushnet, William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, in Rockefeller 003 at 4:30 pm this Thursday, January 15.

Also join Mark Tushnet for a student lunch from 12:15 to 1:30 pm on January 15 in the Class of 1930 Room, Rockefeller Center.

Much of today’s political discourse features debate over the scope of government authority, especially as it pertains to regulation of individual liberties. While some believe that government holds the constitutional authority to restrict individual expression and privacy, others contend that these are natural rights that the government cannot regulate. How should our government interpret the scope of its constitutional authority over individual rights in the context of today’s society?

Professor Mark Tushnet

This Thursday, Harvard Law School’s Professor of Law Mark Tushnet will propose an alternative to the originalist interpretation of the Constitution, which recognizes only the specific enumerated rights that the document claims to exist. Instead, Tushnet will suggest that we have a general right to liberty, such that all government intrusions on that right require adequate justification. He will speak to the deep national roots of this general right to liberty, including a long-standing concern about the evil effects of oligarchy in public and private forms.

Mark Tushnet is William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He is the co-author of four casebooks, including the most widely used casebook on constitutional law, has written numerous books, including a two-volume work on the life of Justice Thurgood Marshall and, most recently, "Advanced Introduction to Comparative Constitutional Law," "In the Balance: The Roberts Court and the Future of Constitutional Law," "Why the Constitution Matters," and "Weak Courts, Strong Rights: Judicial Review and Social Welfare Rights in Comparative Perspective," and has edited several others. He was President of the Association of American Law Schools in 2003. In 2002, he was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.