Eric Segall on Justice Scalia’s “Snake Oil Originalism” (with my comments)
Michael Ramsey
Eric Segall at Dorf on Law: Supreme Ghosts, Snake Oil Originalism, and the 2015-2016 Term. A central point is that Justice Scalia did not actually practice originalism: Justice Scalia was of course best known for his frequent rants about how important text and history (read original meaning) are to judges who have to decide constitutional law […]
Lawrence Solan on Public Meaning Originalism
Michael Ramsey
Lawrence Solan at Balkinization: The Corpus and the Constitution Professor Solan begins with news out of Brigham Young University: Linguists at Brigham Young University are launching a 100 million word corpus of general Founding-era English, which it has named “COFEA.” A recent essay in the Yale Law Journal Forum by Associate Chief Justice Thomas Lee […]
New Book: “The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America’s Liberties” by Carol Berkin
Michael Ramsey
Recently published, by Carol Berkin (Baruch College, History): The Bill of Rights: The Fight to Secure America's Liberties (Simon & Schuster 2016). Here is the book description from Amazon: “Narrative, celebratory history at its purest” (Publishers Weekly)—the real story of how the Bill of Rights came to be: a vivid account of political strategy, big egos, and […]
Michael Dorf on Originalism and Concealed Carry (with my Comments)
Michael Ramsey
Michael Dorf at Dorf on Law: Second Thoughts About the Ninth Circuit's Second Amendment First-Order Originalism. It begins: Late last week, an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected a Second Amendment challenge to a California law that requires one to demonstrate "good cause" to county officials in […]
Eric Posner, Michael McConnell et al. Discuss Presidential Power
Michael Ramsey
At Intelligence Squared, a debate, with the resolution being: The President has usurped the Constitutional Power of Congress. Pro: Michael McConnell (Stanford) and Carrie Severino (Judicial Crisis Network); con: Adam Cox (NYU) and Eric Posner (Chicago). Here is a description of the debate: The Constitution provides that "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested […]
Josh Blackman on Chief Justice Marshall, Marbury and the Due Process Clause
Michael Ramsey
At Josh Blackman’s Blog, Josh Blackman: #SCOTUS Holds that CJ Marshall’s Decision in Marbury v. Madison violates the Due Process Clause. Professor Blackman begins with a discussion of Williams v. Pennsylvania (decided by the Court earlier this week): In Williams v. Pennsylvania, the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on a capital case that he […]