Political Science Expert to Discuss Effects of Political Fragmentation

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Mark A. Graber, professor of law and government at the University of Maryland, will present “James Buchanan as Savior? Political Power, Political Fragmentation and the Failed 1831 Repeal of Section 25” at 8:30 a.m. Friday, April 4, in E.J. Ball Courtroom in the Leflar Law Center at the University of Arkansas. The event, sponsored the Thomas F. Butt Legal Excellence Fund and the University of Arkansas School of Law, is free and open to the public.

Graber, a nationally recognized expert in political science, will discuss why the movement to repeal Section 25 of the Judiciary Act - and thus curb judicial power - failed as a result of political fragmentation.

“The primary reason the movement to repeal Section 25 failed was because its Jacksonian opponents were fractured in their specific views of why judicial power should be curtailed,” Graber said. “Some were focused on the constitutionality of the National Bank. Others were focused on protective tariffs. This diffusion of focus precluded a unified opposition. By the time the Jacksonians became more unified, the Supreme Court was staffed by a Jacksonian majority committed to limiting judicial power anyway.”

Graber will also address how political diffusion helps preserve judicial power when no existing coalition fully controls the national government.

“The more power is diffused, the less likely that at some point in a political transition the emerging coalition will have adequate control of all veto points in electoral institutions while that coalition has inadequate control of the courts,” he said.

Graber has authored several books, including the critically acclaimed Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil, and has published numerous scholarly articles, appearing in Vanderbilt Law Review and Constitutional Commentary, among others.

Scott Dodson, assistant professor of law at the University of Arkansas, said Graber’s talk has broad implications for present-day politics as well.

“Professor Graber uses a particular event to illustrate a broader insight - that when political parties are fragmented and political power is diffused, the judiciary usually gains power,” he said. “That insight is important for today’s courts and political structures, too. I imagine that faculty, students and all those generally interested in judicial power would find this lecture interesting and relevant.”

School of Law Dean Cynthia Nance said Graber is an excellent choice to be the inaugural Thomas F. Butt Legal Excellence Fund speaker.

“Professor Graber offers a much-appreciated political science perspective on an important legal issue,” she said. “His interdisciplinary approach to law should be valuable both for our students and faculty.”

Named after the longtime Washington County judge and 1938 School of Law graduate, the Thomas F. Butt Legal Excellence Fund provides funding support for lectures on legal history, domestic relations and legal ethics, in addition to student awards and scholarships.

Friends and family continue to donate to the fund, which was set up prior to Butt’s death in 2000 and is administered by the dean of the School of Law and the president of the Washington County Bar Association.