On June 28, Elon Law Professor Eric Fink participated in a newscast exploring the pros and cons of rewriting the U.S. Constitution. The subject has been explored recently by CNN, the ABA Journal, and Time magazine.
In a June 28 interview on WFMY News 2, Fink and Greensboro Technical Community College political science professor Matthew DeSantis discussed the reasoning both for overhauling the Constitution and for preserving it in its current form. While not calling for a complete rewrite of the Constitution, Fink said major changes were warranted.
“This country has changed tremendously since 1789 and especially just the complexity of our economy and the nature of, you know, we are no longer a bunch of small, little separate states, we are now a big, integrated economy, and our constitution needs to match up with that,” Fink said.
Fink elaborated on the WFMY News 2 interview, recommending the following three changes to the Constitution:
- abolish the electoral college, and elect the President by direct popular vote;
- alter the composition of the Senate so that states are represented based on population;
- clarify that the definition of a “person” for purposes of civil rights and liberties applies only to natural persons, and not to corporations or other business entities.
Fink explained that the common thread among these three changes is that they would enhance democracy by bolstering the principle of “one person, one vote.”
At Elon Law, Fink teaches in the areas of civil procedure, socio-legal studies, labor & employment law, professional responsibility, administrative law, and consumer rights. His research examines legal problems, institutions, and practices from a sociological perspective; his current projects include studies of formal and informal regulation in recreational fly fishing, privatization of municipal public services, and the conception of law in anarchist political thought.
Click here or on the E-Cast link adjacent to this article to watch the WFMY News 2 interview in full.
Click here for the TIME magazine cover story on the subject, here for an ABA Journal article on the subject, and here to watch an interview on the subject with CNN senior analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who delivered the fall 2008 Bryan Leadership Lecture at Elon Law.
Click here for Professor Fink’s June 17 interview with WFMY News 2 about the American Community Survey.