Sanford Levinson
{{Short description|American political writer}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Sanford Levinson
| image = Sanford Levinson at the National Archives (cropped).jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Levinson in 2017
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1941|6|17|mf=y}}
| birth_place = Hendersonville, North Carolina, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| fields = Constitutional law
| workplaces = University of Texas
| alma_mater = Duke University (BA)
Harvard University (PhD)
Stanford University (JD)
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| doctoral_students =
| notable_students =
| known_for = Our Undemocratic Constitution
| influences =
| influenced =
| awards =
| religion =
}}
Sanford Victor Levinson (born June 17, 1941) is an American legal scholar known for his writings on constitutional law. A professor at the University of Texas Law School, Levinson is notable for his criticism of the United States Constitution as well as excessive presidential power{{cite news
| author = Sanford Levinson
| title = "Wartime Presidents and the Constitution: From Lincoln to Obama" – speech by Sanford Levinson at Wayne Morse Center
| publisher = Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics
| date = February 5, 2009
| url = http://www.uoregon.edu/~morse/democracy.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}} and has been widely quoted on such topics as the Second Amendment, gay marriage, nominations to the Supreme Court, and other legal issues. He has called for a Second Constitutional Convention of the United States.
Early life and education
Levinson was born in 1941 in Hendersonville, North Carolina.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZpWiAPts_AsC&dq=Sanford%20Levinson%20born%201941&pg=PA330|isbn=9780160445453|title=H.R. 2443, the Equitable Escheatment Act of 1993: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Supervision, Regulation, and Deposit Insurance of the Committee on Banking, Finance, and Urban Affairs, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress, Second Session, March 22, 1994|year=1994|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office}} He is Jewish.{{cite news | author = Hannah Natanson | title = Anti-Semitic Postcard Promises to 'Drain the Swamp' at Harvard Law| publisher = The Harvard Crimson | date = November 25, 2016 | url = https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2016/11/25/hls-visiting-prof-hate-mail/ | access-date = 2019-10-02}} Levinson graduated from Duke University with an A.B. in 1962, then earned a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University in 1969. He then attended Stanford Law School, graduating with a J.D. in 1973.{{cite web| author = staff| title = Sanford V Levinson| publisher = Texas Law – University of Texas at Austin| date = 2017-01-21| url = https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/svl55/| access-date = 2017-01-21}}{{cite web| author = staff| title = Sanford Levinson| publisher = Harvard Law School| date = 2017-01-21| url = http://hls.harvard.edu/faculty/directory/10527/Levinson| access-date = 2017-01-21}}{{cite web| author = staff| title = Sanford V Levinson (bio circa 2011)| publisher = School of Law – University of Texas at Austin| date = 2009-10-10| url = http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/profile.php?id=SVL55| access-date = 2017-01-21| url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110126194434/http://www.utexas.edu/law/faculty/profile.php?id=SVL55| archive-date=2011-01-26
}}
Academic career
Levinson was a member of the department of Politics at Princeton. Levinson taught law at Georgetown, Yale, Harvard, New York University, Boston University, Central European University in Budapest{{dubious|reason=Central European University search has no record of Sanford Levinson lecturing or being visiting staff there, and the current bio at Harvard and Texas Law have removed the Budapest entry.|date=January 2017}}, Panthéon-Assas University, the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem{{cite web
| author = staff
| title = Hartman Institute Philosophy Conference to Examine Concept of 'Universal Religiosity' June 20–23, 2010
| publisher = Shalom Hartman Institute
| date = 2010-06-15
| url = https://hartman.org.il/SHINews_View.asp?Article_Id=510&Cat_Id=285&Cat_Type=SHINews
| access-date = 2017-01-21
}} London, Auckland and Melbourne.
In 2001, Levinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010, he was given the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association. In 1980, he joined the University of Texas School of Law at Austin, Texas, where he is also a professor of government. He holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood Jr. Centennial Chair in Law.{{cite web
| author =
| title = Speaker: Sanford Levinson
| publisher = FORA.tv
| date = 2009-10-10
| url = http://fora.tv/speaker/1649/Sanford-Levinson
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110213154203/http://fora.tv/speaker/1649/Sanford-Levinson
| url-status = usurped
| archive-date = February 13, 2011
| access-date = 2017-01-21
}}
Books, scholarship, activism
Levinson is quoted often in publications about numerous legal topics.{{cite news
| author = Joan Biskupic
| author-link = Joan Biskupic
| title = New solicitor general on Obama to-do list
| publisher = USA Today
| date = 2008-11-06
| url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2008-11-06-obamacourt_N.htm
| access-date = 2009-10-10
| author = Joan Biskupic
| author-link = Joan Biskupic
| title = With Sotomayor comes new era in judicial politics
| publisher = USA Today
| date = 2009-07-13
| url = https://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/judicial/2009-07-12-hispanic_N.htm
| access-date = 2017-01-21
}} He has described himself as "a card-carrying A.C.L.U. member who doesn't own a gun" and has argued that the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution limits the government's authority to regulate private gun ownership.{{cite news
| author = Andrea Sachs
| title = WHY THE SECOND AMENDMENT IS A LOSER IN COURT
| publisher = Time Magazine
| date = May 29, 1995
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982373,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080629075857/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,982373,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = June 29, 2008
| access-date = 2009-10-10
| author = Adam Liptak
| title = Few Ripples From Supreme Court Ruling on Guns
| work = New York Times
| date = March 16, 2009
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/17bar.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson's opinions on constitutional law, including his opinions about Second Amendment cases, have been reported in the media.{{cite news
| author = John Schwartz
| title = Gun Rulings Open Way to Supreme Court Review
| work = New York Times
| date = June 16, 2009
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/17/us/17guns.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson has been a panelist on programs sponsored by the Association of American Law Schools and has spoken on topics alongside prominent lawyers such as Kenneth W. Starr.{{cite news
| author = PRNewswire-USNewswire
| title = The Association of American Law Schools 2009 Annual Meeting to Feature Three Presidential
| publisher = Reuters
| date = Jan 6, 2009
| url =https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/06/idUS187204+06-Jan-2009+PRN20090106
| access-date = 2017-01-21
| url-status=dead
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114104802/https://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/06/idUS187204+06-Jan-2009+PRN20090106
| archive-date=2012-11-14
}} Levinson has been identified as a "prominent liberal law professor"{{cite news
| author = JEFFREY ROSEN
| title = The Unregulated Offensive
| work = New York Times Magazine
| date = April 17, 2005
| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07E6D7153EF934A25757C0A9639C8B63
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} and been grouped with other professors including Laurence H. Tribe of Harvard and Akhil Reed Amar of Yale.{{cite news
| author = Adam Liptak
| title = Ruling on Guns Elicits Rebuke From the Right
| work = New York Times
| date = October 20, 2008
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/21/washington/21guns.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson's opinion has been cited during the nominating process for Supreme Court nominees.
Levinson has been critical of Supreme Court justices who have stayed in office despite medical deterioration stemming from age; for example, Levinson criticized Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist for a "degree of egoistic narcissism" by declaring six weeks before his death his intention to stay on.{{cite news
| author = Linda Greenhouse
| title = New Focus on the Effects of Life Tenure
| work = New York Times
| date = September 10, 2007
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/washington/10scotus.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson has called for term limits for Supreme Court justices, as has a growing list of "scholars across the ideological spectrum." He has published comments critical of life tenure for Supreme Court justices.{{cite news
| author = Sanford Levinson
| title = Supreme court prognosis – Ruth Bader Ginsburg's surgery for pancreatic cancer highlights why US supreme court justices shouldn't serve life terms
| publisher = guardian.co.uk
| date = 9 February 2009
| url = http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/feb/09/supreme-court-ruth-bader-ginsburg
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}}
Levinson is particularly noted for his 1989 "seminal article" in the Yale Law Journal entitled "The Embarrassing Second Amendment".{{cite journal |last=Levinson |first=Sanford |author-link=Sanford Levinson |title=The Embarrassing Second Amendment |journal=Yale Law Journal |volume=99 |number=3 |pages=637–659 |date=1989 |jstor=796759 |doi=10.2307/796759 |url=https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7254&context=ylj }} He argued that the Second Amendment offers neither gun rights advocates nor gun control advocates a refuge.{{cite news
| author = RICHARD BERNSTEIN
| title = IDEAS & TRENDS; The Right to Bear Arms: A Working Definition
| publisher = New York Times: Week in Review
| date = January 28, 1990
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/28/weekinreview/ideas-trends-the-right-to-bear-arms-a-working-definition.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} He argued "society must decide the issue of gun control on practical as well as on constitutional grounds ... the issue is to what extent does the Second Amendment permit the Government to do what it wants in controlling firearms, just as we have to establish the extent to which it can limit speech or break into your house without a warrant. Levinson has criticized liberal lawyers as treating "the Second Amendment as the equivalent of an embarrassing relative whose mention brings a quick change of subject." He has argued that the Constitution protects some personal ownership of firearms but admits that "courts are likely to rule that Congress can do almost anything short of an outright prohibition of owning guns."{{cite news
| author = Richard Lacayo
| title = Beyond the Brady Bill
| publisher = Time Magazine
| date = Jun 24, 2001
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,162909,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110213090242/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,162909,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = February 13, 2011
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson's article was cited in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' concurring opinion in Printz v. United States.
Levinson taught a course called Torture, Law and Lawyers at Harvard Law School in 2005.{{cite news
| author = JOSEPH LELYVELD
| title = Interrogating Ourselves
| work = New York Times Magazine
| date = June 12, 2005
| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9504E0DD1238F931A25755C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=7
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson has written essays in The New York Times.{{cite news
| author = Sanford Levinson
| title = 2 Texans, Not 1
| publisher = New York Times: Opinion
| date = August 4, 2000
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/04/opinion/2-texans-not-1.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Levinson edited Torture: A Collection (2005).{{cite news
| author = ROBERT D. KAPLAN
| title = 'The Interrogators' and 'Torture': Hard Questions
| work = New York Times
| date = January 23, 2005
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/books/review/23KAPLAN.html?pagewanted=print&position=
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} A reviewer commented: "What's most striking about these essays is that despite their abstract and theoretical content, they generally do not contradict the depiction of actual interrogators described by Mackey and Miller. The wall between the liberal campus and a conservative, utilitarian-minded military breaks down because the questions are so serious that few of this book's contributors want to engage in polemics, and few – to their credit – ever seem completely comfortable with their own conclusions."
Levinson has been a critic of the unitary executive and excessive presidential power. In the magazine Dissent, he argued that "constitutional dictators have become the American norm."{{cite news
| author = ANAND GIRIDHARADAS
| title = Edging Out Congress and the Public
| work = New York Times
| date = September 25, 2009
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/26/us/26iht-currents.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}} Presidents "have an incentive to declare emergencies" and assume "quasi-dictatorial powers," wrote Levinson. Levinson was highly critical of president George W. Bush who he regarded as possibly the "absolutely worst president." Levinson notes that President Obama seems likely to repeat the pattern of expansive presidential power. He wrote an essay titled "The Decider Can Become a Dictator" in which he criticized a system which allows presidents to make dictatorial decisions of great consequence without providing ways to discipline those who display bad judgment.{{cite web
| author = Kirston Fortune, Assistant Dean for Communications
| title = Constitution Day Essay 2008: Professor Sanford Levinson examines the dictatorial power of the Presidency
| publisher = University of Texas School of Law – News and Events
| date = September 17, 2008
| url = http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2008/091808_levinson_essay.html
| access-date = 2009-10-10
| url-status=dead
| archive-url=https://archive.today/20121211130706/http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2008/091808_levinson_essay.html
| archive-date=11 December 2012
| author = Sanford Levinson
| title = The Decider Can Become a Dictator
| publisher = The News Journal
| website = www.commondreams.org
| date = September 14, 2008
| url = http://www.commondreams.org/views/2008/09/14/decider-can-become-dictator
| access-date = 2017-01-21}}
Levinson commented about a ban on gay marriage proposed by former President George W. Bush in legal terms as a Constitutional issue.{{cite news
|author=KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and JANET ELDER
|title=Strong Support Is Found for Ban on Gay Marriage
|work=New York Times
|date=December 21, 2003
|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/national/21GAY.html?pagewanted=all
|access-date=2009-10-10
|url-status=dead
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609032834/http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/21/national/21GAY.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=June 9, 2009 }}
Levinson has criticized the Constitution (invoking comparisons to Thomas Jefferson) for what he considers to be its numerous failings, including an inability to remove the President despite lack of confidence by lawmakers and the public, the President's veto power as being "extraordinarily undemocratic", the difficulty of enacting Constitutional amendments through Article 5 and a lack of more representation in the Senate for highly populated states such as California.{{cite web
|author = Sanford Levinson (LA Times article available on website)
|title = Our Broken Constitution
|publisher = University of Texas School of Law – News & Events
|date = October 16, 2006
|url = http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/101606_latimes.html
|access-date = 2009-10-10
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091005132615/http://www.utexas.edu/law/news/2006/101606_latimes.html
|archive-date = October 5, 2009
}} He also criticizes the primary process in which important states which aren't considered "battleground states" are ignored by presidential candidates. He's often called for a Second Constitutional Convention: "We ought to think about it almost literally every day, and then ask, 'Well, to what extent is government organized to realize the noble visions of the preamble?' That the preamble begins, 'We the people.' It's a notion of a people that can engage in self-determination." Levinson's book Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) calls for "wholesale revision of our nation's founding document."{{cite news
| author = MICHAEL KINSLEY
| title = Essay: Election Day
| publisher = New York Times: Sunday Book Review
| date = November 5, 2006
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/books/review/Kinsley.t.html?pagewanted=all
| access-date = 2009-10-10
}}
Levinson appeared on the Bill Moyers television program in 2007.{{cite news
| author = Robin Holland
| title = Sanford Levinson
| publisher = Public Broadcasting Service: Bill Moyers' Journal
| date = December 21, 2007
| url = https://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12212007/profile.html
| access-date = 2017-01-21
}} Levinson's research interests include American Constitutional development, Constitutional design, law, religion, multiculturalism, society, and theories of Constitutional interpretation. Levinson participates in a blog called Balkinization, which focuses on constitutional, First Amendment, and other civil liberties issues, as well as a blog called Our Undemocratic Constitution. With Jeffrey K. Tulis, he is co-editor of the Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought and also of a new series, Constitutional Thinking at University Press of Kansas.
Publications
- {{cite book | last = Levinson | first = Sanford | title = Torture: A Collection | url = https://archive.org/details/torture00sanf | url-access = registration | year = 2005 | publisher = Oxford University Press, USA | isbn = 978-0-19-517289-8 }}
- {{cite book | last = Levinson | first = Sanford | title = Constitutional Faith | year = 1988 }}
- {{cite book | last = Levinson | first = Sanford | title = Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies | year = 1998 }}
- {{cite book | last = Levinson | first = Sanford | title = Wrestling With Diversity | url = https://archive.org/details/wrestlingwithdiv0000levi | url-access = registration | year = 2003 }}
- {{cite book |last=Levinson |first=Sanford |author-link=Sanford Levinson |title=Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It) |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2006 |location=Oxford; New York |url=https://archive.org/details/ourundemocraticc0000levi/ |isbn=0-19-530751-8 |ref=tws10oct30}}
- {{cite book | last = Levinson | first = Sanford | title = Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance | year = 2012 }}
- {{cite journal | last1 = Levinson | first1 = Sanford | last2 = Balkin | first2 = Jack M. | author-link2 = Jack Balkin | title = The Dangerous Thirteenth Amendment | journal = Columbia Law Review | volume = 112 | issue = 7 | pages = 1459–1499 | publisher = Columbia Law School | jstor = 41708156 | date = November 2012 | url = http://columbialawreview.org/the-dangerous-thirteenth-amendment/ | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151117030325/http://columbialawreview.org/the-dangerous-thirteenth-amendment/ | archive-date = 2015-11-17 }} [https://web.archive.org/web/20151117030331/http://columbialawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/1459-1500.pdf Pdf.]
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://law.utexas.edu/faculty/svl55/ Levinson's page at the University of Texas School of Law]
- [http://volokh.com/2011/01/05/my-daivlog-with-sandy-levinson/ Bloggingheads dialogue] between Levinson and Professor Randy Barnett of the Georgetown University Law Center, Bloggingheads.tv
- {{C-SPAN|49770}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levinson, Sanford}}
Category:American political writers
Category:American male non-fiction writers
Category:Jewish American academics
Category:Harvard University alumni
Category:Stanford Law School alumni
Category:Duke University alumni
Category:Writers from Austin, Texas
Category:People from Hendersonville, North Carolina