Preface.

• Author: Bloom, Max J.

The University of Michigan Federalist Society chapter hosted the Thirty-Ninth Annual National Student Symposium, albeit remotely, on March 13th and 14th of 2020. The topic, which was determined in a more tranquil era, proved to be prescient: federalism and the relationships among the branches of government. From the impeachment proceedings in early 2020 to the debates about congressional and state power during the COVID-19 crisis, judges, academics, and the public engaged with issues of structural constitutional law throughout the year. The Federalist Society's Symposium hosted four panels on these issues, during which some of the country's finest legal and judicial minds debated the role of norms in our constitutional system, the proper place of the Senate, and constitutional boundaries on interstate relations, among other topics.

We have the honor of presenting six Essays from the Symposium in this Issue of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. In the Symposium's Keynote Address, former United States Solicitor General Paul D. Clement discusses the Madisonian theory of separation of powers, and posits that an increasingly unassertive Congress-far from the "impetuous vortex" that Hamilton and Madison feared-threatens our model of government. In the following essays, Professor Keith Whittington discusses the role of norms in our constitutional order, and Professor Roderick M. Hills makes a case for keeping the Compact Clause entirely irrelevant. Next, Professors Lynn A. Baker and John Yoo discuss the proper role of the Senate: Professor Baker argues that it tends to erode the federalist system by promoting the power of small-population states over large-population states; Professor Yoo contends that the Senate plays a healthy role in America's system of government as a force for deliberation and compromise. Finally, the Symposium essays conclude with a piece by Professor William Baude, in which he criticizes the Supreme Court's approach to interstate relations, whereby the Court has abdicated its role in choice-of-law jurisprudence, while aggressively policing the boundaries of state sovereign immunity.

We are also pleased to present three Articles addressing issues of constitutional and administrative law. The first Article of this Issue, by Professor Craig S. Lerner, addresses the phrase "crimes involving moral turpitude," which has long been used in the immigration laws as a trigger for deportation. Professor Lerner reviews the long...