William Partlett: The American Tradition of Constituent Power
Michael Ramsey
William Partlett (The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK)) has posted The American Tradition of Constituent Power on SSRN. Here is the abstract: How do “the people” exercise their “constituent power” to replace the current constitutional order? The conventional answer — drawing heavily on the American Founding period — is that the people act through specialized […]
Micro-Symposium on Scalia & Garner’s ‘Reading Law’
Michael Ramsey
The Green Bag's Micro-Symposium on Scalia & Garner's 'Reading Law' (Green Bag 2d, Vol. 18, No. 1, 2014, pp. 105-123) has been posted on SRRN. Here is the abstract: Recently, the Green Bag issued a call for short (1,000 words) essays on Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts, by Antonin Scalia and Bryan Garner. We […]
Stephen Ross: Insights From Canada for American Constitutional Federalism
Michael Ramsey
Stephen Ross (The Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law) has posted Insights From Canada for American Constitutional Federalism (University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 891-948 (2014)) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 132 S. Ct. 2566 (2012), […]
John Harrison: Legislative Power, Executive Duty, and Legislative Lawsuits
Michael Ramsey
John Harrison (University of Virginia School of Law) has posted Legislative Power, Executive Duty, and Legislative Lawsuits on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The Constitution does not entitle members of Congress, or the houses of Congress, as such, to judicial relief for executive failure to carry out the law properly. Nor does the Constitution empower Congress to […]
James Pfander & Daniel Birk: Article III Judicial Power, the Adverse-Party Requirement, and Non-Contentious Jurisdiction
Michael Ramsey
James Pfander (Northwestern University School of Law) and Daniel Birk (Northwestern University School of Law) have posted Article III Judicial Power, the Adverse-Party Requirement, and Non-Contentious Jurisdiction (UCD Working Papers in Law, Criminology & Socio-Legal Studies Research Paper No. 13) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The jurisprudence of Article III has so far failed to confront […]
Scott Gerber: Liberal Originalism
Michael Ramsey
Scott Gerber (Ohio Northern University – Pettit College of Law) has posted Liberal Originalism: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation (Cleveland State Law Review, Vol. 63, No. 1, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article is part of a law review symposium about "History and the Meaning of the Constitution." In the article […]
Josh Blackman on Text and Enforcement Discretion (Plus Bonus Discussion of the Immigration Enforcement Ruling)
Michael Ramsey
At Josh Blackman's Blog, Josh Blackman: The Take Care Clause and Prosecutorial Discretion (continuing this discussion). Here is his core point, which I think has not been given the attention it deserves in other discussions of the issue: I think there are a few textual hooks in Article II to think about. First, the President […]
Kurt Lash: Originalism All the Way Down?
Michael Ramsey
Kurt Lash (University of Illinois College of Law) has posted Originalism All the Way Down? (Constitutional Commentary, Vol. 30, p. 149, 2014) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In their new book, ORIGINALISM AND THE GOOD CONSTITUTION [Ed: Harvard Univ. Press, 2013, see here], John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport attempt to vanquish what they call constructionist […]
Gerard Magliocca on The Spirit of the Constitution
Michael Ramsey
At Concurring Opinions, Gerard Magliocca: The Spirit of the Constitution, raising this point: Recently I’ve been asking myself this question: What do people mean when they refer to “the spirit of the Constitution?” It’s a phrase that was used by John Marshall in M’Culloch v. Maryland and which shows up in a lot of Supreme […]
John Calhoun: Explaining Trends in Supreme Court and Circuit Court Dictionary Use
Michael Ramsey
In the current issue of the Yale Law Journal, John Calhoun (Yale Law School, J.D. '15) has the note Measuring the Fortress: Explaining Trends in Supreme Court and Circuit Court Dictionary Use (124 Yale L.J. 484 (2014)). Here is the abstract: Recent research argues that the increasing use of dictionaries in Supreme Court and circuit court opinions […]