it gives us an example for why you need to study science and popular culture moving forward. the science of popular culture interacts. so with that, i'm going to leave you with some suggestions for further reading if you want to follow up on science on television. an amazing book, science on american television. thank you for being here. i will see you next week.

>> let me now mention how much we appreciate the fact that

[applause] [applause] [applause] to achieve these aims we must have total victory. we must have more republicans in our state governments. more republican governments in our states. a republican majority in the united states house of representatives and in the united states senate. and of course a republican in the white house. today is the first day of this great battle. the road to november 4 is a fighting road.

i will keep nothing in reserve.

let me now mention how much we appreciate the fact that justice breyer has agreed to host this evening. we are sincerely grateful to you for that. brief comments about justice breyer can't begin to do justice to him, so i will have to be unjust in light of time constraints that i am subject to.

justice breyer has always been remarkably generous with his time in supporting society projects. in less than two weeks on june 6 at our annual meeting, he will be delivering the society's 41st annual lecture. some background on justice breyer. he was born in san francisco and after stanford, he came east. he has a ba from oxford. earned his law degree at harvard and went on to clerk for justice goldberg. he served with great distinction in the justice department. he served as chief counsel to the senate judiciary committee and served and other similar

roles during that time of his career. he has taught at harvard law school at the harvard kennedy school of government, at the college of law in sydney, australia, and the university of rome. in 1980, president carter appointed justice breyer to the united states court of appeals for the first circuit, and he was the chief judge there from 1990-1994. president clinton nominated him as an associate justice of the supreme court to succeed justice blackmun. he took his seat on august 3, 1994. he has also been a prolific writer, not just of judicial opinions. many books, wonderful articles, on a very wide range of important legal subjects, both domestic and international. published last september.

in a nutshell, in my view, and i am sure you will agree with me, justice breyer's career is powerful evidence of the enduring contributions that a single individual can make to society when he or she is just -- blessed with a keen intellect and an innate sense of decency, justice breyer: that was a pretty long introduction. i will give you a short introduction. i am very happy to be here and introduce you, and i am glad you are all here. i do want to say that this society does a terrifically good job to tell its members and people who aren't members, judges in our courts, and

everybody else in the world, something about the history of the court and what we do. you have teacher training programs. you have trained high school civics teachers. you have released histories and have sponsored these lectures. leon used to give long introductions. i remember that. leon was terrific here at i am so glad you have named this lecture series after him. this is a series, for parts, this is part two. the four parts are on the court and the progressive era.

tonight's event is a panel discussion. the panelists are the three of you. he has written many books, including lochner v. new york, economic regulation on trial, justice stephen field from california, and he had a very colorful career, shaving liberty from the gold rush to the gilded age. and the supreme court under chief justice morrison, 1874-1888. randy barnett is the professor of legal theory at georgetown university law center. he teaches constitutional law.

his most recent book is, our republican constitution, securing the liberty and sovereignty of our people. between the two is our moderator. she is a professor of law at the georgetown university law center. she is the author of, and reckless hands. also, a forthcoming book, misreading law, misreading democracy. this panel is perfect to discuss this issue, so please join me in welcoming them. [applause]

>> on behalf of the panel, thank you very much for that wonderful introduction. i am delighted to be here. hopefully i am one of the last moderates and washing to moderate a debate between two of the most distinguished lochner scholars in the country. if you have seen their earlier c-span performances, you will find it in transit, the facts of the progressive era, how teddy roosevelt made the case famous, but you won't hear much about the key legal concepts that drove the case.

i hope that having written a bit myself about lochner in the course of my book on skinner that we will hear from these distinguished scholars something about these concepts. they include the notion of rights, of substantive due process, the presumption of liberty, and a somewhat forgotten concept called class legislation. i am going to give the honor at first as we discussed earlier for 10 minutes, then professor barnett for 10 minutes, then i will attempt to intervene if i get a word in edgewise to guide the conversation on some of these interesting concepts. >> thank you, victoria. i want to thank justice breyer for his kind introduction and thank the historical society for inviting me to participate. i appreciate the opportunity to take part in his conversation about lochner v. new york. it is a case, to put it mildly, has not enjoyed a very good reputation.

a chicago law professor best captured the lochner legacy with a simple question. who would ever cite this case and the supreme court brief except to identify it with your opponent's position? it is safe to say that a majority of lawyers, constitutional scholars, and judges from all sides of the political and economic spectrum rank lochner along with dred scott as one of the worst decisions and constitutional history. >> of course there are some prominent and distinguish exceptions. i suspect randy will attempt to convince you that the lochner case does not deserve its reputation.