On March 3, 2016, the North Carolina Law Review will host a colloquy centered on a recent article by Professor Jason Mazzone and Carl Emery Woock ('15).

The article, published in the December issue of the North Carolina Law Review, and entitled Federalism as Docket Control, uses the twentieth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Lopez (1995) to revisit the Rehnquist Court’s federalism revolution.  

Mazzone and Woock contend that much of what has been said about the federalism cases of the Rehnquist Court misses a fundamental aspect of those decisions. Based on original historical research, Mazzone and Woock show that in its federalism decisions the Rehnquist Court aimed to shield the federal district courts from ever-expanding criminal and civil cases that resulted from new federal laws. They demonstrate that these efforts represented the culmination of a much longer history—one that began with Marbury v. Madison (1803)—of over-burdened and under-appreciated federal judges pushing back against demands to perform tasks that would distract them from their core functions under the Constitution.

The colloquy on March 3 will bring together prominent academics to engage with Mazzone and Woock on their article and to discuss also federalism developments at the Roberts Court and the possible impact of a new Court member following the death of Justise Scalia. 

Participants at the colloquy will include Ernest Young and Neil Siegel (Duke), Rick Hills (NYU), Jud Campbell (Stanford), and Bill Marshall, Mary-Rose Papandrea, Michael Gerhardt, and Eric Muller (UNC).

Jason Mazzone is professor of law, Lynn H. Murray Faculty Scholar in Law, and co-director of the Program in Constitutional Theory, History and Law at the University of Illinois. Carl Emery Woock graduated from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2015 and he is now an associate at the law firm of Norman, Hanson and DeTroy, LLC, in Portland, Maine.  

Read Federalism as Docket Control