The Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy is a vibrant center for scholarship and events, supporting the functioning of constitutional democracies in the United States and abroad.
About the Center
Established in 2000 through a gift from Dr. Stephen Floersheimer, the Center supports research by scholars and policymakers, hosts speakers and conferences, issues publications and provides financial support for visiting scholars as well as student projects. Topics of particular concern include civil liberties in an age of terrorism, the structures of democratic government and the relationship between church and state.
The Center's current Co-Directors are Professors Wilfred Codrington, Rebecca Ingber, and Alexander A. Reinert. Hui Yang is its Program Administrator.
Every summer, the Center provides research grants for faculty working on projects related to the Center's mission. Recent recipients include Michael E. Herz, and David Rudenstine.
Cardozo's constitutional law faculty members, including Michael E. Herz, provide commentary on landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases in the Cardozo Benchmarks video series.
Getting to Know: Center for Constitutional Democracy
Hear Co-Directors Wilfred Codrington III and Michael Pollack provide an overview of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy.
Upcoming Events
Michelle Adams on Detroit, The Supreme Court, and School Segregation
- Sep 17
Join us for a special evening with Michelle Adams, the Henry M. Butzel Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, and former Cardozo Professor, as she discusses her acclaimed new book The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for School Desegregation. After the talk, a reception will follow in the first floor lobby.
This program will take the form of a conversation between Professor Adams and James Forman, Jr. (Yale Law School), moderated by Cardozo Professor Alex Reinert. Together, they will reflect on the history and legacy of Milliken v. Bradley, the Supreme Court decision that reshaped the trajectory of desegregation in the North, and connect Milliken’s lessons to today’s debates over racial justice, affirmative action, and educational equity.
Described as “splendid” by The New York Times Book Review and “passionate and well researched” by The New Yorker, Adams’s book uncovers the legal and political battles that defined Northern school desegregation and examines their lasting impact on racial justice today.
Michelle Adams is a leading constitutional scholar, a nationally recognized authority on racial justice and the Supreme Court, and the former co-director of the Floersheimer Center for Constitutional Democracy at Cardozo School of Law. She served on the Biden administration’s Supreme Court Commission and appeared as an expert commentator on Netflix’s Amend: The Fight for America and Showtime’s Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court.
James Forman Jr. is the J. Skelly Wright Professor of Law at Yale Law School. He is a leading scholar on schools, police, and prisons, with a particular interest in the intersection of race and class within those institutions. Professor Forman’s first book, Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America, was on many top 10 lists, including The New York Times’ 10 Best Books of 2017, and was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
This event is co-sponsored by Cardozo BLSA (Black Law Students Association).
Copies of The Containment: Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for School Desegregation will be available for sale at the event.
CLE Credit: 1.0 transitional/non-transitional New York State CLE credits in the category "Areas of Professional Practice."
RSVP NOW: https://TheContainment.eventbrite.com
Annual SCOTUS Term Preview
- Sep 29
Details TBD.
Featured Events
A Government of the People: Popular Engagement in U.S. Constitutional Democracy
Recent Events
The Bro-Economy and the Bro-Democracy
Spring 2025
The Future of "History and Tradition": The First Amendment Implications of Bruen
Spring 2024
The Supreme Court and New Frontiers in Religious Liberty
Spring 2023
Student Fellows
The center designates Floersheimer Student Fellows each year. The fellows, who receive a modest stipend, perform legal research, help execute events, and provide other support for the center’s projects.
The center also provides financial support for student activities that are consistent with the center’s overall mission. Cardozo students seeking financial support for an organization or for an individual internship or other project should contact the program's co-directors.
Louise Williams (23') at her summer externship, which was made possible with the Floersheimer Center fund.
Visitors and Distinguished Fellows
The center invites a small number of Distinguished Fellows to be in residence for two to four weeks during the academic year. Fellows are provided an office, secretarial assistance, travel and living expenses and an honorarium. While at Cardozo, they contribute in such ways as teaching a mini-course, giving a faculty workshop or public lecture, guest teaching another professor’s course, or providing an article to a Cardozo journal. In addition, the center occasionally sponsors a semester-long visit by a prominent constitutional scholar.