Election 2024: What Is at Stake?

Constitutional Democracy and the Rule of Law

Rod Smolla, President of the Vermont Law & Graduate School

Monday, June 24, 2024 7:00 PM

at the United Church of Strafford, Vermont

The Zoom link is below.

            The policy positions of the two principal presidential candidates, and more broadly, the two principal political parties, span a wide variety of issues, foreign and domestic.  As the November election approaches, we will hear competing positions on issues such as social equity, the economy, social security, tax policy, climate and the environment, immigration, women’s reproductive rights, gender identity, and other LGBTQ+ matters and foreign policy, among others.

Cutting across all these specific topics, however, are larger themes conjuring two different visions of what it means to live in a “constitutional democracy” respecting the “rule of law.”  Presidents wield great power and influence, to be sure.  Yet that power and influence is divided and checked at the federal level by the Senate, the House of Representatives, and the Supreme Court.  It is also shared in our federal system with the powers allocated to state and local governments, and to lower state and federal courts.

The two presidential candidates, and their respective parties, are animated by quite different notions concerning the proper distribution of powers among the various institutions that comprise our constitutional democracy. They also embrace differing views of what it means to live in a society that respects the rule of law.  It is no exaggeration to characterize the contrasts as embracing starkly different visions of the fundamental character of the nation.

Rod Smolla, President of the Vermont Law and Graduate School and a lifelong constitutional law scholar, teacher, and litigator, will seek to articulate, objectively and fairly,  these contrasting visions, and then lead an open discussion with attendees on the issues posed.

The talk will be available to livestream on Zoom and we hope to post a recording afterward.  Here is the Zoom information:

Topic: Rod Smolla Talk: Election 2024: What Is at Stake? Democracy
Time: Jun 24, 2024 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83099608389

Meeting ID: 830 9960 8389

—

One tap mobile
+13126266799,,83099608389# US (Chicago)
+16469313860,,83099608389# US

—

Dial by your location
• +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
• +1 646 931 3860 US
• +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
• +1 301 715 8592 US (Washington DC)
• +1 305 224 1968 US
• +1 309 205 3325 US
• +1 507 473 4847 US
• +1 564 217 2000 US
• +1 669 444 9171 US
• +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
• +1 689 278 1000 US
• +1 719 359 4580 US
• +1 253 205 0468 US
• +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
• +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
• +1 360 209 5623 US
• +1 386 347 5053 US

Meeting ID: 830 9960 8389

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdjQBLEbjr