Amanda Tyler: Levels of Generality, the Limits of Originalism, and the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Jurisprudence
Michael Ramsey
Amanda L. Tyler (University of California, Berkeley – School of Law) has posted Levels of Generality, the Limits of Originalism, and the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Jurisprudence (78 SMU L. Rev. 265 (2025)) (29 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Just how originalist is the Court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence after United States v. Rahimi? […]
Haley Proctor on Judges and Historians
Michael Ramsey
At SCOTUSblog, Haley Proctor (Notre Dame): Are judges good historians? From the introduction: Three years ago in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, the Supreme Court announced a two-step test for Second Amendment challenges. A court must first ask whether the Second Amendment’s plain text covers the conduct in which the challenger wishes […]
Caleb Nelson on Executive Removal Power [Updated]
Michael Ramsey
At NYU Law’s Democracy Project, Caleb Nelson: Must Administrative Officers Serve at the President’s Pleasure? From the introduction: … Aside from its provisions about impeachment … the Constitution does not specifically address the removal of officers in the executive branch (which, for this purpose, includes the enormous variety of agencies that administer an enormous variety […]
Podcast: Judge Bumatay Interviews Justice Barrett
Michael Ramsey
From Advisory Opinions, Judge Patrick Bumatay interviews Justice Amy Coney Barrett at SCOTUSblog’s On the Merits summit at the Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg Center: here. RELATED: In the Washington Free Beacon, Ed Whelan reviews Justice Barrett’s new book: Justice Barrett Makes Her Case. From the introduction: Barrett marks her fifth anniversary as a justice later this […]
Steven Calabresi on Gordon Wood on Amar’s “Born Equal”
Michael Ramsey
At Volokh Conspiracy, Steven Calabresi: Gordon S. Wood Weighs in on Akhil Reed Amar’s Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920. From the introduction: On September 16, Yale Law professor Akhil Reed Amar published Born Equal: Remaking America’s Constitution, 1840-1920, the second volume of an in-progress three-volume history of America’s constitutional project from 1760 to the present day. The […]
Joining an Opinion to Keep the Assignment Authority
Mike Rappaport
Paul Cassell, a former Burger clerk, defends the former Chief’s votes in a series of cases where he departed from the original meaning: Blackman fails to adequately consider the situation that The Chief all too often [found] himself in—one vote on a nine-Justice court that was often inclined to reaffirm and even expand dubious Warren […]
Donald Drakeman and Lisa Drakeman on Wine and the Constitution || Michael Ramsey
At Law & Liberty, Donald L. Drakeman & Lisa Drakeman: The Wine Key to the Constitution. From the introduction: In 1788, Thomas Jefferson sent a letter from Paris to an American, his partner in a business venture importing fine French wines to Virginia. That letter would change constitutional history almost a century later. In fact, […]
2026 Originalism Works-in-Progress Conference in San Diego || Michael Ramsey
The University of San Diego’s Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism has announced the list of papers and commentators for the Seventeenth Annual Hugh and Hazel Darling Foundation Originalism Works-in-Progress Conference, scheduled for February 6-7, 2026, at the University of San Diego School of Law: William Baude (Chicago), “Crosskey’s Legacy”; Commentator: Tara Grove (Texas) […]
Lawrence Rosenthal: The 2024 Trump Cases || Michael Ramsey
Lawrence Rosenthal (Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law) has posted Originalism Chokes: The 2024 Trump Cases (UC Law Constitutional Quarterly (forthcoming)) (63 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: By 2024, a majority of the Justices of the Supreme Court had expressed the view that to be legitimate, constitutional adjudication must be based […]
Samuel Bray: Remedies in the Officer Removal Cases || Michael Ramsey
Samuel L. Bray (University of Chicago Law School) has posted Remedies in the Officer Removal Cases (37 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: When a federal officer challenges her removal by the president, what forms of interim relief and what final remedies are available? This Article considers those questions. It shows that the appropriate […]