Steven G. Calabresi, et al.: State Bills of Rights in 1787 and 1791: What Individual Rights Are Really Deeply Rooted in American History and Tradition
Michael Ramsey
Steven G. Calabresi, Sarah E. Agudo, and Kathryn L. Dore: State Bills of Rights in 1787 and 1791: What Individual Rights Are Really Deeply Rooted in American History and Tradition? Here is the abstract: This article examines State Bills of Rights in 1787 and 1791 when the federal Constitution and Bill of Rights were adopted. […]
Lee J. Strang:Originalism Grounded in the Central Western Philosophical Tradition
Michael Ramsey
Lee J. Strang (University of Toledo College of Law) has posted The Clash of Rival and Incompatible Philosophical Traditions within Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism Grounded in the Central Western Philosophical Tradition (Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Vol. 28, p. 909, 2004) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In this Article, I tie original meaning […]
Steven G. Calabresi and Andrea Matthews: Originalism and Loving v. Virgina
Michael Ramsey
Steven G. Calabresi and Andrea Matthews: Originalism and Loving v. Virgina. Here is the abstract: This article makes an originalist argument in defense of the Supreme Court’s holding in Loving v. Virginia that antimiscegenation laws are unconstitutional. This article builds on past work by Professor Michael McConnell defending Brown v. Board of Education on originalist […]
David Orentlicher: The Case for a Bipartisan Executive Branch
Michael Ramsey
David Orentlicher (Indiana University – Robert H. McKinney School of Law) has posted Two Presidents are Better than One: The Case for a Bipartisan Executive Branch (D. Orentlicher, TWO PRESIDENTS ARE BETTER THAN ONE: THE CASE FOR A BIPARTISAN EXECUTIVE BRANCH, New York University Press, 2013) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: At the Constitutional […]
Dan L. Burk: Dynamic Claim Interpretation
Michael Ramsey
Dan L. Burk (University of California, Irvine, School of Law) has posted Dynamic Claim Interpretation (INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND THE COMMON LAW, Shyam Balganesh, ed., 2012) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Patent law hinges on the interpretation of a legal text, on construing the definitional claims that conclude the patent document, demarcating the characteristic features […]
Is There an Originalist Case against Affirmative Action?
Michael Ramsey
The Supreme Court's grant of certiorari yesterday in Fisher v. University of Texas makes this post particularly timely… At The Faculty Lounge, Alfred Brophy: Starkey on Inconsistent Originalism. Professor Brophy's post highlights a 2010 article by Brando Starkey (Villanova Law): Inconsistent Originalism and the Need for Equal Protection Re-Invigoration, which among other things makes the […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Another great post from Lawrence Rosenthal in the Cato Unbound series on Substantive Due Process: Lawson on Original Meaning.
Larry Solum’s “Legal Theory Lexicon” Defines “Originalism”
Michael Ramsey
Lawrence Solum: Legal Theory Lexicon: Originalism. From the introduction: There are many different theories of constitutional interpretation, but the most controversial and also perhaps the most influential is "originalism"–actually a family of constitutional theories. The idea that courts would look to evidence from the constitutional convention, the ratification debates,The Federalist Papers, and the historical practice […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Robert G. Natelson: Independence Institute files unique Supreme Court brief in Obamacare case. Professor Natelson notes: We have just filed an amicus curiae (”friend of the court”) brief with the Supreme Court arguing that (1) under current Supreme Court rulings, Obamacare’s individual mandate, if it can be justified at all, must be justified under the […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Timothy N. Baldwin: Montana AG Steve Bullock: An Original Intentionalist or Living Constitutionalist. More discussion of originalism at the state law level. (I would note, though, that the article's principal criticism of Steve Bullock – whom I had not heard of before this moment — appears to be that he failed to resist enforcement of federal marijuana laws […]