The US Constitution was designed to divide and intertwine power among three branches of government, to prevent one branch from overpowering the others. In the words of James Madison, “ambition must be made to counteract ambition.” Yet the efficacy of this separation of powers system has been debated since its inception. The capacity for executive power has grown significantly over time and some doubt the other branches’ ability to contain it.
The judiciary, in particular, has long been viewed as the weakest branch of government. It depends on the executive branch to enforce its rulings, which provides it legitimacy in the eyes of the public. Though the Framers of the Constitution intended for the courts to be independent through lifetime appointments, many are still concerned about the increasingly politicized nature of this process and judges’ loyalty to their appointing president. Overall, the interdependencies of the executive and judicial branches of government have highlighted some of the most important challenges to ensuring our separation of powers system functions as the Framers intended.
This conference brings together political scientists, legal scholars, and other academics to explore the various ways the executive and judicial branches of government intersect in the U.S. political system, and their implications for governing and society. Through a series of panels, scholars will present and discuss the latest cutting-edge research in these areas – with an eye towards identifying reforms that can improve the trust and efficacy in either or both of these institutions.
The conference agenda is below.
| Thursday, June 6, 2024 | |||
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| Time | Content | Speakers | |
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8:15 – 8:50 AM |
Registration & Breakfast |
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8:50 – 9:00 AM |
Opening Remarks by Sharece Thrower |
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9:00 – 10:00 AM |
SESSION 1 Executive Branch Transparency and Judicial Oversight |
Presenter: Gbemende Johnson (Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Georgia) Discussant: Abby Wood (Professor of Law, Political Science and Public Policy, University of Southern California) |
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10:00 – 10:15 AM |
Break |
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10:15 – 11:15 PM |
SESSION 2 Complementary Appointments |
Presenter: Lauren Mattioli (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Boston University) Discussant: Anne Joseph O’Connell (Professor of Law, University of Stanford) |
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11:15 – 11:30 AM |
Break |
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11:30 – 12:30 PM |
SESSION 3 A Theory of Judicial Review and Executive Power |
Presenter: Sharece Thrower (Associate Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University and Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institute) Discussant: Chris Walker (Professor of Law, University of Michigan) |
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12:30 – 1:30 PM |
LUNCH |
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1:30 – 2:30 PM |
SESSION 4 Vacatur is Not a Remedy |
Presenter: Emily Bremer (Professor of Law, University of Notre Dame) Discussant: Tara Leigh Grove (Professor of Law, University of Texas) |
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2:30 – 2:45 PM |
Break |
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2:45 – 3:45 PM |
SESSION 5 Prosecuting Before the Public: The Effects of Officers of the Courts on Public Perceptions of the Judicial System |
Presenter: David Miller (Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California-Riverside) Discussant: Sharece Thrower (Associate Professor of Political Science, Vanderbilt University and Visiting Fellow, Hoover Institution) |
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3:45 – 4:00 PM |
Break |
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4:00 – 5:00 PM |
SESSION 6 The Future of the Supreme Court: Evaluating its Ideological Composition and Possible Selection Reforms |
Presenter: John Kastellec (Professor of Politics, Princeton University) Discussant: Lee Epstein (Professor of Law, University of Southern California) |
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5:30 – 7:00 PM |
Conference Dinner |
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| Friday, June 7, 2024 | |||
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| Time | Content | Speakers | |
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8:15 – 9:00 AM |
Breakfast |
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9:00 – 10:00 AM |
SESSION 7 Saving Agency Adjudication |
Presenter: Chris Walker (Professor of Law, University of Michigan) Discussant: Tracey George (Professor of Law, Vanderbilt University) |
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10:00 – 10:15 AM |
Break |
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10:15 – 11:15 AM |
SESSION 8 How the Trump Administration’s Quota Policy Transformed Immigration Judging |
Presenter: Christina Boyd (Professor of Political Science, University of Georgia) Discussant: Paul Gardner (Assistant Professor of Politics, Queen’s University) |
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11:15 – 11:30 PM |
Break |
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11:30 – 12:30 PM |
SESSION 9 It's About Time! Fostering Timeliness and Preserving Accuracy and Fairness in Administrative Adjudication |
Presenter: Jennifer Selin (Attorney Advisor, Administrative Conference of the United States) Discussant: Nicholas Bednar (Associate Professor of Law, University of Minnesota) |
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12:30 – 12:35 PM |
Closing Remarks by Sharece Thrower |
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12:35 – 2:00 PM |
LUNCH |
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About the Conference Host
Sharece Thrower is a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution. She is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. She currently serves as an associate editor at the Journal of Politics and Presidential Studies Quarterly. She is a co-author of the book Checks in the Balance: Legislative Capacity and the Dynamics of Executive Power (Princeton University Press, 2022), which received the 2022 Alan Rosenthal Prize and the 2023 Richard E. Neustadt Award. Her second book project examines judicial constraints on executive power at both the federal and state levels.
