Threats to the Pennsylvania Constitution Symposium

Topic

The Constitution of Pennsylvania, like that of the United States, was designed to ensure our future as a republic, or in Madison’s words, a government in which all power comes directly or indirectly from the people. The separation of powers and checks and balances were designed to block an accumulation of power in the hands of any one body and the use of that power to undermine the rule of law and our representative democracy.

Members of the General Assembly have been putting forward a series of constitutional amendments that in dramatic ways would change how we choose legislators and Justice and judges as well as change the balance of power between the different branches of government.

This symposium will consider these proposed constitutional amendments and ask whether they enhance or threaten the republican character of the government of Pennsylvania