Experts

Theodore Ruger, a constitutional law expert, brings fresh insight to the study of some of the oldest questions of American law – namely the theoretical justifications for, and empirical contours of, the application of judicial authority.

Quote regarding the 1965 Voting Rights Act: “In his Shelby County v. Holder majority opinion invalidating a key portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Chief Justice Roberts stressed that ‘things have changed dramatically’ over the past 50 years and that ‘history did not end in 1965.’  These words are clearly apt when applied to the Supreme Court’s decision the following day striking down the Defense of Marriage Act; few could have imagined on DOMA’s passage in 1996 that public (and judicial) attitudes would shift so substantially in favor of same-sex marriage in less than two decades. Yet, the theme of a changed world is more problematic and ambiguous within the realm of unequal minority access to political power, the issue area where the Chief Justice made those assertions in the Shelby case."