The Classical Liberal Constitution

Featuring the author Richard A. Epstein, Professor of Law, New York University Law School, Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution, Professor of Law Emeritus, and Senior Lecturer, University of Chicago Law School; with comments by Jess Bravin, Supreme Court Correspondent, the Wall Street Journal, moderated by Roger Pilon, Director, Center for Constitutional Studies, Cato Institute.

In his latest book, a wide‐​ranging tome covering vast areas of our law, Richard Epstein mounts a principled attack on modern Supreme Court jurisprudence and much of the legal scholarship that has grown up around it. The major disarray that infects every area of modern American life, he argues, from deficits and debt to health care, financial services, declining standards of living and more, could not have happened under the original constitutional structure, faithfully interpreted in light of changed circumstances. It arose from a profound progressive break with the classical liberal tradition that guided the drafting and interpretation of the Constitution.

Video produced by Blair Gwaltney.