Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Michal R. Belknap (California Western School of Law): Citizenship is a birthright. As regular readers know, I think Professor Belknap is right that the Fourteenth Amendment's original meaning guarantees citizenship for children born in the United States whose parents are aliens (including illegal aliens). But he goes on to say, or rather assume, that this […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Andrea Seabrook speaks with Richard Stengel of Time magazine and Yale law professor Akhil Amar about the political divide over the Constitution and how an 18th-century document applies in a 21st-century world.
Rebecca L. Brown: Assisted Living for the Constitution
Michael Ramsey
Rebecca L. Brown (USC Gould School of Law) has posted Assisted Living for the Constitution (Forthcoming, Drake Law Review, 2011) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: David Strauss’s wonderful book, The Living Constitution, posits that constitutional interpretation can gain legitimacy by analogy to the common law. This comment argues that the analogy, while plausible and […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Kenneth C. Davis: Why U.S. is not a Christian nation. For a different view, Richie Temple: One nation under God?
Grant Huscroft and Bradley Miller: The Challenge of Originalism
Michael Ramsey
Grant Huscroft (University of Western Ontario – Faculty of Law) and Bradley W. Miller (University of Western Ontario – Faculty of Law) have posted The Challenge of Originalism: Theories of Constitutional Interpretation (Cambridge University Press, 2011) on SSRN. This collection of essays features contributions by an array of prominent scholars, including two from the University of […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Garrett Epps: What Clarence Thomas's Video-Games Dissent Tells Us About 'Originalism.' I had some similar reactions to Justice Thomas’ dissent (minus the general scorn for Thomas and originalism that Epps expresses), as noted here. Epps is right, I think, to characterize Thomas’ dissent as amounting to something like (as Epps puts it) a claim that […]
David Marcus: The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Institutions in Legal Interpretation
Mike Rappaport
David Marcus (University of Arizona – James E. Rogers College of Law) has posted When Rules are Rules: The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and Institutions in Legal Interpretation (Utah Law Review, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Like any legal text, the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure require interpretation. Given their day-to-day importance […]
Originalism in the Blogs: More on the Debt Limit (Updated)
Michael Ramsey
Jack Balkin responds to Michael Stern on the debt limit and Section 4 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Michael Stern has additional thoughts and links here. Also this from David Dayen: Balkin on the Debt Limit Constitutional Option: Original Intent to “Remove Threats of Default from Partisan Struggle”. UPDATE: Additional thoughts from Jonathan Adler at Volokh […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Eric R. Claeys: Obamacare and the Limits of Judicial Conservatism.
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Josh Feldman: Does The Constitution Matter? Time’s Richard Stengel Explains Controversial Cover Story.