Summary: The Federalist Society's 2012 National Lawyers Convention began the morning of its second day with a call to order by Mr. Dean A. Reuter, Vice President & Director of Practice Groups for the Federalist Society, followed by Showcase Panel II. -- The present Supreme Court was also closely divided in the recent separation of powers case, Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. While the opinion ruled that part of the structure of the Board ran afoul of the separation of powers, it is not clear how significant the decision is beyond the precise facts of the case. This question is likely to arise soon, perhaps in a case involving the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank legislation. The current Court has also split five to four on sovereign immunity and standing. For example, recently, Justice Kennedy provided the critical fifth vote to find standing and force the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions by new cars sold in the U.S. It is quite likely that major separation of powers cases presenting a number of these issues will reach the Supreme Court in the next couple of years. This panel will examine the direction the Supreme Court might take when such a case gets to the high Court. -- Featuring: Prof. Akhil Reed Amar, Southmayd Professor of Law and Political Science, Yale Law School; Prof. David Barron, Honorable S. William Green Professor of Public Law, Harvard University Law School; Hon. C. Boyden Gray, Boyden Gray & Associates, former White House Counsel and former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Prof. John O. McGinnis, George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law, Northwestern University School of Law; Prof. Victoria Nourse, Georgetown University Law Center; and Moderator: Hon. A. Raymond Randolph, U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. Introduction by Mr. Dean A. Reuter, Vice President & Director of PracticeGroups, The Federalist Society.
