American Academy Lecture at Freie Universität Berlin

Overcoming the Constitutional Barriers to Economic Equality in the United States

In this talk, Bertrall Ross discusses the intentional decision by the framers to the US Constitution to politically disempower the poor, and the constitutional limits the Supreme Court has placed on redressing economic inequality. Against this legal backdrop, he argues that reducing the electorate’s income-class imbalance—i.e. the wealthy voting at higher rates than the less affluent—is one of the most constitutionally effective means of ameliorating political inequality. In so doing, Ross shows how political campaigns’ mobilization strategies are key to inducing greater participation among the poor, and he proposes three legal strategies for how to do so.

In cooperation with Freie Universität Berlin