"What is a Constitutional Crisis?" - Professor Kim Lane Scheppele

University of Miami School of Law: Explainer

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Episode 1 of the University of Miami School of Law's Constitutional Crisis Seminar features Kim Lane Scheppele, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Sociology and International Affairs and Director of the Program in Law and Normative Thinking at the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. She is one the leading experts on how democracies become autocracies and provides a checklist of factors that signal a slide from democracy to authoritarianism. In recent months, the U.S. has checked all, or nearly all, of the boxes. This wide-ranging lecture beautifully tees up the more specific topics in the weeks to come. Among the signs to watch for are: capture the legislature, claim emergency powers, capture the judiciary, the bureaucracy, and place loyalists in “independent” regulatory bodies. Use law to harass opponents, and seek to control or diminish the role of civil society including universities. Eventually the autocrat enables or encourages private violence, and then rewrites election laws to stay in power. Professor Scheppele then looks at how recent developments in the U.S. enact all or most of these factors. She concludes by suggesting that modes of resistance will depend in part on federalism, and on localities, that have the means to use local law to protect democracy.

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