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Distinguished Lecture Series
2025: Leondra R. Kruger
Associate Justice, Supreme Court of California
Fireside Chat Q&A
(This program was not recorded.)
2024: Ronald Krotoszynski
John S. Stone Chairholder of Law and Director of Faculty Research, University of Alabama School of Law
"Free Speech as Civic Structure: A Comparative Analysis of How Courts and Culture Shape the Freedom of Speech"
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2023: Julie C. Suk
Professor of Law, Fordham University School of Law
"Unamendable: Lessons from Failed Constitutional Amendments"
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2022: Henry L. Chambers, Jr.
Austin E. Owen Research Scholar & Professor of Law, University of Richmond School of Law
"Redistricting and Gerrymandering: What's the Fuss?"
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2021: Erika George
Quinney College of Law, The University of Utah
"Rethinking Rights to Protect Democracy in the Digital Age: Reflections on Incitement and Inequality"
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2020: Mark Graber
University System of Maryland Regents Professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
"The Unwritten Constitutions of the United States"
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Archive - Distinguished Lectures
2019
Deborah Pearlstein, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
"The Fate of the Imperial Presidency"
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2018
Professor Michael Paulsen, The University of St. Thomas School of Law
"The Constitutional Power of Impeachment: Congress's Ultimate 'Trump' "
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Professor Ken Kersch, Boston College
"The Development of Constitutional Conservatism"
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Note: Audio heard best with headphones or external speakers.
2017
Professor Justin Driver, University of Chicago Law School
"Free Speech in Public Schools: From Black Armbands to BONG HiTS FOR JESUS"
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Professor Kurt Lash, University of Illinois Law School
"On the 150th Anniversary of the Reconstruction Amendments: The Two Thirteenth Amendments"
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2016
Professor Reva Siegel, Yale Law School
"Same-Sex Marriage and Backlash: Constitutionalism Through the Lens of Consensus and Conflict"
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Maura Strassberg, Professor of Law, Drake Law School
"Scrutinizing Polygamy after Hobby Lobby and Obergefell"
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2013
Laura E Gómez, Vice Dean and Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law
Title: "Three Centuries of Latinos in the U.S.: The Cyclical Dynamics of Nation-Building, Citizenship, and Legal Personhood"
Aziz Huq, professor, University of Chicago Law School
"Amending the U.S. Constitution: The Surprising Reasons Why it Should Remain Difficult"
Marci Hamilton, Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law, Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law
"The Constitution and Child Protection from Religious Actors"
2012
Nathan J. Brown, Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University
"Islam and Constitutionalism in Egypt's New Constitution"
Pamela Karlan, Professor, Stanford Law School
"The Transformation of Judicial Restraint"
2011
Eric Posner, Professor, University of Chicago Law School
"The Executive Unbound: After the Madisonian Republic"
Constitution Day Lecture
Each year, Drake University holds an event in honor of Constitution Day. The event usually involves a speech by a distinguished expert in constitutional law. The speaker also typically meets with the faculty at the law school.
2024: Guy-Uriel E. Charles
2024 Order of the Coif Distinguished Visitor; Charles Ogletree, Jr. Professor of Law and faculty director, Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School
“Race and American Democracy”
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2023: Timothy Naftali
Faculty Scholar at Columbia's Institute for Global Politics, Columbia University
"'Scandalized?': Rethinking Presidential Scandals in the Modern Era"
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2022: Jamal Greene
Dwight Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
"Saving the Constitution"
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2021: Dahlia Lithwick
U.S Supreme Court correspondent, Slate magazine
"Covering the Courts: What Role Does the Supreme Court Press Play in Protecting the Constitution?"
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2020: Stephen Gardbaum
Stephen Yeazell Endowed Chair in Law, UCLA School of Law
"The Counter-Playbook: Resisting the Populist Assault on Separation of Powers"
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Archive - Constitution Day
2019 - (Combined with a fall symposium program)
"Democracy and Dysfunction" featuring:
- Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School
- Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government, University of Texas School of Law
- Francis H. Buckley, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
- Mark S. Kende, Director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center; James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law and Professor of Law, Drake University Law School
- Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
- David Pozen, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
- Miguel Schor, Associate Director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center and Professor of Law, Drake University Law School
- Franita Tolson, Professor of Law, University of Southern California Gould School of Law
2018
Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School
"Our Polarized Constitution: Judicial Review in the Cycles of Constitutional Time"
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2017
Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, University of California-Berkeley School of Law
"Free Speech on Campus"
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2016
Professor Mary Anne Franks, University of Miami School of Law
"Guns, Speech, and Sex: The Rise of Constitutional Extremism"
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2015
Tracey L. Meares, Walton Hale Hamilton Professor of Law, Yale University
"Policing in the 21st Century"
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2014
Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Charles M. and Marion J. Kierscht Professor of Law, University of Iowa School of Law
"Re-Articulating the Harm of Discrimination: An Examination of Brown v. Board of Education at 60"
2013
Richard H. Pildes, Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law, New York University School of Law
"The Fundamental Transformation in the Law and Practice of Modern Warfare"
2012
Louis Michael Seidman, Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Constitutional Law, Georgetown University Law Center
"On Constitutional Disobedience
2011
David Cole, Professor, Georgetown University Law Center
"Constitutional Rights Ten Years After 9/11: Has Everything Changed?"
Constitutional Law Symposium
The annual Constitutional Law Symposium invites scholars, judges, and lawyers from across the country to discuss a timely constitutional issue. The proceedings are published in the Drake Law Review.
2025: "A Global Comparison of Presidential Immunity in Democracies"
Speakers:
- Penelope Andrews, John Marshall Harlan Professor of Law and Director, Racial Justice Project, New York Law School
"Democratic Reinforcement or Overreach? Judicial Intervention to Hold South Africa's President Accountable"
Watch the recording here - Carlos Bernal, Professor of Law, University of Dayton School of Law and former Justice of the Columbia Constitutional Court
"Presidential Immunity in Latin America"
Watch the recording here - Stephen Vladeck, Agnes Williams Sesquicentennial Professor of Federal Courts, Georgetown University Law Center
"The Impunitary Executive: Article II after Trump v. United States"
Watch the recording here - Kieran Williams, Associate Professor and Co-chair, Department of Political Science, Drake University
"Presidential Immunity in Europe after Saakashvili v. Georgia"
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2024: "Climate Change, the Environment, and Constitutions"
Speakers:
- James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law-joint appointments at the Bren School and UCLA Law
"Rights of Nature: Fact and Fiction"
Watch the recording here - Abre' Conner, Lecturer, UC-Davis, Director of Environmental and Climate Justice Center, NAACP
"Speaking up to Stop the Climate Crisis: Environmental Justice and the First Amendment" Watch the recording here - Erin Daly, Professor of Law and Director, Dignity Rights Clinic, Widener University Delaware Law School
"Climate Indignities: Why Dignity Matters in Climate Litigation"
Watch the recording here - Jonathan H. Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law and Director, Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law, Case Western Reserve School of Law
"Anti-Constitutional Climate Claims"
Watch the recording here - Jerry Anderson, Dean and Richard M. and Anita Calkins Distinguished Professor of Law, Drake Law School
"Commons, Climate and the Constitution"
Watch the recording here
2023: "The Scales of Justice Tilt Right: Abortion, Affirmative Action, and the Administrative State"
Speakers:
- Teresa Stanton Collett, Professor of Law; Director, Prolife Center, University of St. Thomas School of Law (Minneapolis)
- Mark S. Kende, James Madison Chair Professor in Constitutional Law; Director, Drake Constitutional Law Center, Drake Law School
- Ilya Somin, Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
- Vinay Harpalani, Professor of Law; Lee & Leon Karelitz Chair in Evidence & Procedure, University of New Mexico School of Law
- Ilan Wurman, Associate Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
- Nicholas Parrillo, William K. Townsend Professor of Law and Professor of History, Yale Law School.
2022: "The Constitution and Democratic Erosion"
Speakers:
- Edward B. Foley, Charles W. Ebersold and Florence Whitcomb Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law; Director, Election Law at Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law
- Andrea Katz, Associate Professor of Law, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law
- David Landau, Mason Ladd Professor and Associate Dean for International Programs, Florida State University School of Law
- James R. Stoner, Jr., Hermann Moyse, Jr., Professor of Political Science and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute, Louisiana State University
- Jeffrey Tulis, Professor of Government and Professor of Law, The University of Texas at Austin.
2021: "Reexamining Pragmatism in Constitutional Interpretation"
Speakers:
- Brian Butler, Professor of Philosophy, University of North Carolina (Asheville)
- Daniel Farber, Sho Sato Professor of Law; Faculty Director, Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, University of California, Berkeley
- Mark Kende, Director of the Constitutional Law Center; James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law; Professor of Law, Drake University Law School
- Linda C. McClain, Robert Kent Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
- Robert Tsai, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law
2019/2020:
"Democracy and Dysfunction"
Speakers:
- Jack Balkin, Knight Professor of Constitutional Law and the First Amendment, Yale Law School
- Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government, University of Texas School of Law
- Francis H. Buckley, George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law, Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University
- Mark S. Kende, Director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center; James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law and Professor of Law, Drake University Law School
- Leah Litman, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
- David Pozen, Professor of Law, Columbia Law School
- Miguel Schor, Associate Director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center and Professor of Law, Drake University Law School
- Franita Tolson, Professor of Law, University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
Archive - Constitutional Law Symposium
2019: "Is it Time to Amend the Constitution?"
Speakers:
- Richard Albert, William Stamps Farish Professor of Law, University of Texas School of Law
- Richard S. Kay, Wallace Stevens Professor of Law Emeritus and Oliver Ellsworth Research Professor, University of Connecticut School of Law
- Sanford Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law and Professor of Government, University of Texas School of Law
- Lisa L. Miller, Professor of Political Science, Rutgers University.
2018: "Is Constitutional Democracy Endangered in the U.S. and Abroad?"
Speakers:
- Tom Ginsburg, Leo Spitz Professor of International Law, Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar, and Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago Law School
- Elizabeth Foley, Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law
- John Reitz, Edward Carmody Professor of Law and Director of Graduate Programs and Visiting Scholars, University of Iowa College of Law; an
- David Stebenne, Professor of History and Law, Ohio State University
2017: "President Obama's Constitutional Law Legacy"
Speakers:
- Taunya Lovell Banks, University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law
- Eric Berger, Nebraska College of Law
- John Eastman, Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law
- Ambassador Stephen Rapp, The Hague Institute for Global Justice and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Center for Prevention of Genocide
- Ilya Somin, George Mason University
2016: "War Powers and the Constitution: 15 Years After 9/11"
Speakers:
- Stephen Griffin, Tulane Law School
- Saikrishna Prakash, University of Virginia School of Law
- Stephen Vladeck, American University Washington College of Law
- Mariah Zeisberg, University of Michigan
2015: "Eyes and Ears Everywhere? Privacy in an Age of Government and Technological Intrusion"
Speakers:
- Geoffrey R. Stone, University of Chicago Law School
- Laura Donohue, Georgetown
- Gabriel Schoenfeld, Hudson Institute
- Nadine Strossen, New York Law School
2014: "The U.S. Supreme Court’s Obamacare Decision and Its Significance for the 50th Anniversary of LBJ’s Great Society"
Speakers:
- Robert Dallek, Stanford University Program
- Neil S. Siegel, Duke University Law School
- Jonathan H. Adler, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
- Mark Tushnet, Harvard Law School
- William E. Forbath, University of Texas School of Law
- Tomiko Brown-Nagin, Harvard Law School
2013: "The U.S. Constitution and Political Dysfunction: Is There a Connection?"
Speakers:
- Sanford V. Levinson, University of Texas School of Law
- Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research
- Richard Hasen, University of California, Irvine
- John McGinnis, Northwestern University School of Law
- Lori Ringhand, University of Georgia School of Law
- Brenna Findley, legal counsel to Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad
2012: "Constitutionalism and the Poor"
Speakers:
- Peter Edelman, Georgetown University Law Center
- John Powell, University of California, Berkeley
- Frank Michelman, Harvard Law School
- Julie Nice, University of San Francisco School of Law
- Ilya Shapiro, Cato Institute
- Hon. Mark S. Cady, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court
2011: "Debating the Living Constitution"
Speakers:
- David Strauss, University of Chicago Law School
- Keith Whittington, Princeton University
- Rebecca Brown, University of Southern California School of Law; an
- Wil Waluchow, McMaster University
2010: "The Same-Sex Marriage Divide"
Speakers:
- Douglas Allen, Simon Fraser University
- Andrew Koppelman, Northwestern Law School
- Mark Strasser, Capital University Law School; Lynn Wardle, BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School
- Lee Badgett, University of Massachusetts
- Maggie Gallagher, president of the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy
2009: "Global Perspectives on Religion, the State, and Constitutionalism"
Speakers:
- Abdullah An'Nain, Emory Law School
- Rick Garnett, Notre Dame Law School
- Frank Ravitch, Michigan State College of Law
- Laura Jenkins, University of Cincinnati
- Tom Farr, Georgetown School of Foreign Science
- Jeremy Gunn, Director of the ACLU Religion and Law Project in D.C.
2008: "The Forgotten Constitutional Amendments"
Speakers:
- Randy Barnett, Georgetown Law School
- Daniel Farber, University of California, Berkeley
- Kurt Lash, Loyola Law School Los Angeles
- Michael Kent Curtis, Wake Forest Law School
- Rebecca Zietlow, University of Toledo Law School
- David Bogen, University of Maryland Law School
2007: "The 'Undemocratic' American Constitution"
Speakers:
- Sanford V. Levinson, University of Texas School of Law
- Heather Gerken, Yale Law School
- Neal Devins, William and Mary School of Law
- Donald Horowitz, Duke Law School
- Saikrishna B. Prakash, University of San Diego Law School
2006: "The Role of Courts in Social Change"
Speakers:
- Mark Tushnet, Georgetown University Law Center
- Jane Schacter, Stanford Law School
- John Eastman, Chapman University School of Law and Director of the Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence at the Claremont Institute
- Gerald Torres, University of Texas Law School
- Gerald Rosenberg, University of Chicago
Judge James Grant Iowa Constitution Lecture Series
In 2012, the Center initiated the Judge James Grant Iowa Constitution Lecture Series to feature prominent experts on the topic of the Iowa Constitution every other year.
2025: Todd Pettys
Interim Dean, Professor of Law, and H. Blair and Joan V. White Chair in Civil Litigation, University of Iowa College of Law
"Abusing the Right to Speak"
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2023: Michael Rappaport
Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Professor of Law; Director, Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism, University of San Diego School of Law
"The Challenge for Originalism from Precedent"
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2021: Professor James A. Gardner
University at Buffalo School of Law, The State University of New York
"Is Iowa a Liberal Democracy?"
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Archive - Judge James Grant Iowa Constitution Lecture
2018
Professor Allan Vestal, Drake University Law School
"Two Tenets of Religious Liberty in the Constitutions of Iowa"
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2015
Hon. Edward Mansfield, Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court
"Exploring the Original Meaning of Article I, Section 6 of the Iowa Constitution"
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2014
Roxanne Conlin, Esquire
"Does the Iowa Constitution Provide a Remedy in Damages to Individuals Who Have Been Harmed by its Violation?
2014
Hon. Brent R. Appel, Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court
"State Constitutional Law in Iowa: Past, Present and Future
2013
Sanford V. Levinson, W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair, University of Texas School of Law
"More Alike Than Different? A Comparison of the U.S. and Iowa Constitutions"
2012
Hon. Mark S. Cady, Chief Justice of the Iowa Supreme Court
"A Pioneer’s Constitution: How Iowa’s Constitutional History Uniquely Shapes Our Pioneering Tradition in Recognizing Civil Rights and Civil Liberties"
Read Justice Cady's Drake Law Review article.
Other Constitutional Law Center Programs
The Constitutional Law Center has hosted numerous lectures and symposia, bringing the nation's top experts to campus to speak on a variety of topics.
Reception in Celebration of the 19th Amendment Centennial
"100 Years after the 19th Amendment: Their Legacy, and Our Future"
January 23, 2020
Speakers:
- Kristin Corey, Office of the Status of Women, Iowa Department of Human Rights
- Roxanne Barton Conlin, LW '66, Partner, Roxanne Conlin & Associates, P.C.
International Bar Association Rule of Law Town Hall
November 21, 2019
Speakers:
- Carol Hunter, Executive Editor of the Des Moines Register
- Mark S. Kende, Director of the Drake Constitutional Law Center, James Madison Chair in Constitutional Law and Professor of Law, Drake University Law School
- Hon. James "Jim" Leach, former Republican Member of Congress, Iowa
- Hon. Edward Mansfield, Justice, Iowa Supreme Court
- Homer Moyer (moderator), Past Chair, IBA Rule of Law Forum
Law School Calendar 
Law School News
November 12, 2025
November 6, 2025
