Constitutional scholar Sanford Levinson of the University of Texas spoke last night at Akin Gump about how the Constitution contributes to "the contemporary crisis of American politics."
Levinson, discussing material from his recent book, said that his focus was not on the 10 percent of constitutional issues being litigated, but rather on the 90 percent that are not disputed yet have a significant effect on American democracy. His examples included the disproportionate influence in the Senate of less-populated states, the president's veto power that Levinson contends effectively creates a tri-cameral legislature, and the fixed-term presidency that allows a president to remain in office even when a majority of the population lacks confidence in his judgment on matters of life and death.
Levinson's solution would be a new constitutional convention to address these structural issues. He acknowledges that this is "highly unlikely to happen," but Levinson wants to warn people about the need, somewhat like Paul Revere (when Levinson is being optimistic) or Cassandra (more pessimistically).
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