Originalism in the Blogs
Mike Rappaport

Philip Miles on Scalia: Not Original Intent but Original Meaning. Miles makes a good point — that Scalia believes in original meaning, not original intent — but his piece would have been stronger had he (or Scalia) explained how Scalia derives his conclusion that sex discrimination is not covered by the 14th Amendment from its […]

Book Review Essay of Five Books on the Origins of the Constitution

Barry Sullivan (Loyola University Chicago School of Law) has posted a Book Review Essay of five books on the origin of the Constitution (American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 29, p. 173, 1988) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The bicentennial of the Constitution has provided the occasion for an outpouring of scholarship concerning the […]

Originalism in the Blogs
Mike Rappaport

Patrick J. Charles responds to my History Office Law in Mike Rappaport on Originalism, Historians, and the Second Amendment. I don't think that Patrick Charles understood my principal criticism of Pauline Meier.  I am certainly in agreement that context matters.  But the question is what is the object of inquiry.  And for original meaning people, […]

Originalism in the Blogs
Mike Rappaport

Patrick J. Charles responds to Muhammad Ali Hasan's Why the Founding Father would Support the DREAM Act in Revisionism, the Founding Fathers, and the Dream Act

The Language of Statutes: Laws and Their Interpretation
Mike Rappaport

Lawrence M. Solan (Brooklyn Law School) has posted The Language of Statutes: Laws and Their Interpretation (Brooklyn Law School, Legal Studies Paper No. 216)  on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This is chapter 1 of The Language of Statutes: Laws and their Interpretation (University of Chicago Press (2010). The chapter situates debate about statutory interpretation […]

Originalism and Summary Judgement
Mike Rappaport

Brian T. Fitzpatrick (Vanderbilt Law School) has posted Originalism and Summary Judgement (Ohio State Law Journal, Vol. 71, No. 5, p. 919, 2010)  on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Over the last several years, the Supreme Court has revolutionized modern criminal procedure by invoking the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial to strike down […]