More on Charles Beard and the Constitution
Michael Ramsey
The current issue of the UC Davis Law Review has two articles from the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Legal History's session “Law and Counterrevolution: Charles Beard and the Origins of American Constitutionalism”: (1) Aaron Knapp (Boston University), The Legal Counterrevolution: The Jurisprudence of Constitutional Reform in 1787 (47 UC Davis L. Rev. 1859 (2014)). […]
Justice Stevens Reviews Judge Katzmann (and Slams Justice Scalia); Josh Blackman Comments
Michael Ramsey
In the New York Review of Books, Justice John Paul Stevens: Law without History? (reviewing [favorably] Judge Robert Katzmann's Judging Statutes (Oxford 2014). But actually the review is an extended attack on Justice Scalia's view of statutory interpretation, particularly his rejection of legislative history. Josh Blackman comments here: Stevens: Scalia is a Textualist Because He is […]
Ajay Mehrotra: Revisiting the Intellectual Roots of the Beardian Thesis
Michael Ramsey
Ajay Mehrotra (Indiana University Maurer School of Law) has posted Charles A. Beard & The Columbia School of Political Economy: Revisiting the Intellectual Roots of the Beardian Thesis (29 Constitutional Commentary 475 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: A century after it was first published, Charles A. Beard’s An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution remains […]
Josh Blackman on Balkin on Noel Canning and Originalism
Michael Ramsey
At Josh Blackman's Blog, Josh Blackman: Balkin on Noel Canning and Originalism (criticizing this post by Jack Balkin, noted here). From the core of the argument: The thread that holds together Jack’s entire post is that the original meaning of the Constitution does not place such checks on “presidential power in domestic policymaking.” If you accept […]
Brad Masters: Reconciling Originalism with the Father of Conservatism
Michael Ramsey
Brad Masters (Brigham Young University – J. Reuben Clark Law School) has posted Reconciling Originalism with the Father of Conservatism: How Edmund Burke Answers the Disruption Dilemma in N.L.R.B. v. Canning (Brigham Young University Law Review, Vol. 2013, No. 4) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Recent scholarship argues that conservative and originalist jurisprudences contradict each […]
Christopher Walker: An Empirical Study on Agency Statutory Interpretation
Michael Ramsey
Christopher Walker (Ohio State University (OSU) – Michael E. Moritz College of Law) has posted Faithful Agency in the Fourth Branch: An Empirical Study on Agency Statutory Interpretation (Stanford Law Review, Vol. 67, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Constitution vests all legislative powers in Congress, yet Congress grants expansive lawmaking authority to federal […]
Two Essays from Judge Jeffrey Sutton
Michael Ramsey
Judge Jeffrey Sutton (Ohio State University (OSU) – Michael E. Moritz College of Law; U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit) has posted Courts as Change Agents: Do We Want More — or Less? (Harvard Law Review, Vol. 127, pp. 1419-1445, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Review of Emily Zackin, Looking for Rights […]
Jessie Allen: Law and Artifice in Blackstone’s Commentaries
Michael Ramsey
Jessie Allen (University of Pittsburgh – School of Law) has posted Law and Artifice in Blackstone's Commentaries (4 Journal of Law: A Periodical Laboratory of Legal Scholarship No. 3 Chapter One, Summer 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: William Blackstone is often identified as a natural law thinker for whom property rights were preeminent, but […]
Michael Salamone: The Influence of the Federalist Society on the Supreme Court
Michael Ramsey
Michael Salamone (Washington State University) has posted Community and Persuasion: The Influence of the Federalist Society on the Supreme Court (APSA 2014 Annual Meeting Paper) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Since its organization in the early 1980s, the Federalist Society has sought to influence the federal courts by promoting conservative and libertarian legal scholarship. Qualitative […]
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz on Bond v. United States
Michael Ramsey
Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz (Georgetown University Law Center) has posted Bond v. United States: Concurring in the Judgment (Cato Supreme Court Review, pp. 285-306, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Bond v. United States presented the deep constitutional question of whether a treaty can increase the legislative power of Congress. Unfortunately, a majority of the Court […]