Please join the Yale Program in Law and Political Economy and YLS LPE Student Group for an in-person event September 2 at 12:10pm (RSVP req’d) on the Supreme Court’s misuses of the founding period history with Professor Bill Novak.
In June 2022, the US Supreme Court elevated American history to new heights of constitutional significance, as “this Nation’s history and tradition” became an evermore important determiner of constitutional rights and powers. Professor Bill Novak has just completed a revisionist history of the so-called Lochner era, deconstructing myths of laissez-faire and American anti-statism. He’s now turning his attention back to the American founding period in the late 18th century — where so many flagrant misconstruals of the American past first began. Come hear about his early surprising research findings from a historical period we thought we knew so well.