As part of the Chicago's Best Ideas series, Assistant Professor Rosalind Dixon will deliver the lecture "Partial Constitutional Amendments."

Art V of the Constitution makes the formal process of constitutional amendment extremely difficult - in fact far too difficult according to most constitutional scholars. But does it matter? And if so, what can we do about it?  Amending Art V seems near impossible...and the idea, advanced by some Yale law professors, that we should be free to amend the Constitution via a national referendum seems equally implausible (not to mention undesirable). Professor Dixon therefore proposes a new solution to the problem: that the Supreme Court should treat failed amendments supported by a Congressional majority as "partial" constitutional amendments.