Checks and Balances and Private Enterprise: How Markets Shape—and Are Shaped by—Our Constitutional Order

The U.S. Constitution is often seen as a set of rules that structure government power, but in practice it has always existed alongside private enterprise. To mark Constitution Week 2025, Minor Myers, Zephaniah Swift Professor of Law at UCONN, will explore how markets and corporations sometimes act as checks on political authority, how the Constitution itself shapes the boundary between public and private power, and why those boundaries are less fixed than we might think. We’ll also consider what happens when common political norms erode, leaving the underlying rules to provide far less constraint than conventional practice long suggested. This program is presented in partnership with the Hannah Benedict Carter Chapter, NSDAR. 

Minor Myers, Zephaniah Swift Professor of Law at the University of Connecticut School of Law, teaches and writes about American law with a focus on how legal institutions shape our economic and political life. His scholarship has been cited in major court decisions and featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times. Before entering academia, he practiced law in New York and served as a law clerk on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. A native of New London, Connecticut, he is a graduate of Connecticut College and Yale Law School.