Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Fordham Law School will offer a course on History, Originalism, and the Founders Constitution. Here's the course description: The theory of originalism has gained strength in recent years. Indeed, originalism now has adherents across the contemporary political spectrum, including scholars on the right as well as the left. There is really only one group of […]
Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl: How to Read a Statute in a Lower Court
Michael Ramsey
Aaron-Andrew P. Bruhl (University of Houston Law Center) has posted Hierarchy and Heterogeneity: How to Read a Statute in a Lower Court (Cornell Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Is statutory interpretation an activity that all courts should perform the same way? Courts and commentators implicitly so conclude. I believe that conclusion […]
Holger Fleischer: Comparative Approaches to the Use of Legislative History in Statutory Interpretation
Michael Ramsey
Holger Fleischer (Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law) has posted Comparative Approaches to the Use of Legislative History in Statutory Interpretation (American Journal of Comparative Law, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In many legal systems the significance to be attributed to legislative history in the context of statutory interpretation remains […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
William E. Forbath, The Distributive Constitution (at Democracy, responding to a prior debate among Geoffrey Stone, William Marshall, Doug Kendall, and Jim Ryan regarding "progressive alternatives to conservative originalism"). Related – Geoffrey R. Stone: The Framers' Constitution.
Larry Alexander: Jack Balkin’s Originalism with No Regrets
Michael Ramsey
Larry Alexander (University of San Diego School of Law) has posted The Method of Text and ?: Jack Balkin’s Originalism with No Regrets (University of Illinois Law Review, forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this comment on Jack Balkin’s Living Originalism, I analyze his method of “text and principle.” I have no quarrel […]
“The Challenge of Originalism” Now Published
Michael Ramsey
The Challenge of Originalism, edited by University of Western Ontario Law Professors Grant Huscroft and Bradley Miller and published by Cambridge University Press, is now in print. As described at Western Ontario's website: On the strength of contributions by Larry Alexander (University of San Diego School of Law), James Allan (University of Queensland School of […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Jack Rakove: Originalism (on video, discussing "James Madison's role in the framing and ratification of the Constitution, and the legal approach of Originalism"). Rakove, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the founding era and author of (among others) the classic Original Meanings, is a thoughtful originalism skeptic who's always well worth a listen.
Originalism in the Blogs
Michael Ramsey
At Ricochet, Richard Epstein: Originalism and Constitutional Mistakes – with comments by John Yoo (here, here, and here), and a further comment by Epstein here. (The discussion arises from a post by Peter Robinson asking whether overruling precedent is consistent with "conservative jurisprudence," a somewhat different question from what originalism requires.) In the comments, Professor Yoo’s argument […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Lana Birbrair reviews Constitutional Originalism: A Debate by Robert W. Bennett and Lawrence B. Solum: Should the Constitution Respond to Change? Two legal scholars debate opposing answers in a new book. Most notable: Birbrair's claim that former Stanford Law School dean Paul Brest "coined the term 'originalism.'" Is this true? Anyone? UPDATE: Christopher Green (Univ. […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Victoria Pynchon: Would Justice Thomas Strike Down DOMA? It's a good question, although the article never gets around to answering it in any serious way. Because the equal protection clause as an original matter doesn't appear to apply to the federal government (see this post by Mike Rappaport), the main modern arguments against DOMA, as I understand […]