Andy Hessick

Professor Andy Hessick, Associate Dean of Faculty Research and Development, appeared on Channel 5 on Monday, April 9, to discuss a recently filed ballot initiative proposal that would add voters to the checks and balances of state versus federal authority.

Hessick said the man is “probably wasting his time.”

Thomas Jefferson and James Madison tried to challenge the federal government’s ultimate authority in 1798, and Arkansas resisted a U.S. Supreme Court mandate to desegregate public schools in Brown v. Board of Education, Hessick said. However, the federal government prevailed each time, he said.

“It’s been repeatedly resolved over and over throughout history that the federal courts have the power to determine if a law is constitutional,” Hessick said. “It’s not for the states.”

To watch the video, click here.

Hessick, who joined the College faculty in 2008, is responsible for building an environment that encourages and promotes faculty scholarship. He teaches Evidence, Civil Procedure, Administrative Law, Legal Process, the Supreme Court in American Politics, and Judicial Remedies. He served as a law clerk for Judge Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and for Judge Reena Raggi of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. He spent a year as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General for the United States, working on a number of cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, and then worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel.