Suzanna Sherry, Vanderbilt’s Herman O. Loewenstein Professor of Law, delivered the 2006 William Howard Taft Lecture at the University of Cincinnati Law School on Thursday, Nov. 9. In her lecture, "Democracy and the Death of Knowledge," Professor Sherry examined the now common, but "truly dangerous" belief that "knowledge should not be the province of experts, but should be produced by popular vote."
"Judges are under unprecedented attack in the United States," she said. The source of the attacks, she argued, "runs much deeper than a failure to separate politics from law. It is part of a larger phenomenon: We have begun to conflate politics and knowledge. In the name of democracy, we have jettisoned the role of experts and expertise."
A nationally recognized scholar in the field of constitutional law who has authored more than 70 books and articles, Professor Sherry also writes extensively on federal courts and federal procedure.
View a Web cast of Professor Sherry’s 2006 Taft Lecture