Prof. Ilan Wurman of the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University will join the GULC Federalist Society to discuss his most recent book The Second Founding: An Introduction to the Fourteenth Amendment. GULC Prof. Brad Snyder will offer commentary on Prof. Wurman’s talk.

The Fourteenth Amendment is now over 150 years old. The Supreme Court has long rejected interpreting that Amendment with its original meaning. But what would an originalist interpretation of the Amendment look like? Would it be unworkable for modern problems? In this talk, Ilan Wurman, associate professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, will argue not only that we should reclaim the original meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment, but that doing so would lead to many desirable and surprising results. Professor Wurman argues that the privileges or immunities clause is not, like many originalists claim, a fundamental rights provision, but is instead an antidiscrimination provision. The implications for incorporation, economic liberty, school desegregation, and gay rights are surprising.