Irina Manta: Are Federal Criminal Sanctions for IP Infringement Unconstitutional?
Michael Ramsey
At Concurring Opinions, Irina Manta (Hofstra Law School) asks (in three parts): Are Federal Criminal Sanctions for IP Infringement Unconstitutional? (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) An excerpt from part 3: In 2006, Prof. Margaret Lemos published a provocative paper in the Texas Law Review entitled “The Commerce Power and Criminal Punishment: Presumption of Constitutionality or Presumption of Innocence?”. […]
Doug Kendall and Mei-Wah Lee on Justice Ginsburg as the Court’s New Originalist
Michael Ramsey
At the Constitutional Accountability Center (CAC) website, Doug Kendall and Mei-Wah Lee: At Age 80, Justice Ginsburg Emerges as the Court's New Originalist: In the three Terms since Justice Stevens’s departure, the Supreme Court’s docket has been packed with hot button cases that have garnered national interest. With the Court thrust into the forefront of […]
The Government’s ‘General Warrants’ for the Digital Age by Jeremy Leaming
Michael Ramsey
At the ACS Blog, Jeremy Leaming: The Government's 'General Warrants' for the Digital Age (plus video interview with Jameel Jaffer, ACLU Deputy Legal Director): If the Fourth Amendment bar against unreasonable searches and seizures undertaken by the government “prohibits anything, it surely is that kind of dragnet surveillance that’s not based on individualized suspicion of any kind,” […]
David Gans on the Supreme Court and Equality
Michael Ramsey
At the Constitutional Accountability Center's website, David H. Gans: In Recent Rulings, Supreme Court Views Constitution's Promises in Vastly Different Ways. With this pointed criticism, among others: Ignoring the actual Constitution, Chief Justice John Roberts’ opinion in Shelby County argued that the Voting Rights Act violated the principle of equal sovereignty of the states. But […]
Lawrence Solum’s Legal Theory Lexicon: Originalism
Michael Ramsey
At Legal Theory Blog, Lawrence Solum has posted a revised version of Legal Theory Lexicon: Originalism (see our prior post here). It remains the state-of-the-art summary of originalism's core views, set forth in readily understandable terms. An excerpt: Originalism continues to evolve, and the lines of development sometimes converge, but it is fair to observe that originalism in […]
Justice Scalia on “Moralist” Judges [Updated]
Michael Ramsey
From the Asheville Citizen-Times, Justice Scalia Criticizes "Moralist" Judges: Judges are no more qualified to make decisions on the morality of issues such as abortion and the death penalty than doctors, engineers “or even Joe Six-Pack,” U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said Friday [in a speech in Asheville]. … "In the United States and […]
More on Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council, from David Gans and Marty Lederman (and me)
Michael Ramsey
At the Constitutional Accountability Center's website, David H. Gans argues that the Supreme Court's decision in Arizona v. Inter Tribal Council was a big win for the federal government: Reaffirmation of Broad Congressional Power to Protect the Right to Vote in Federal Elections (somewhat contrary to this analysis by Lyle Denniston at SCOTUSblog). Justice Scalia’s majority opinion turned to […]
Commerical Speech Debate with Eugene Volokh, Alan Morrison, and Elizabeth Wydra
Michael Ramsey
On HuffPost Live, First Amendment, Inc., a debate by Eugene Volokh, Alan Morrison, and Elizabeth Wydra on the First Amendment and commerical speech. The introductory caption says: It's been nearly 40 years since Ralph Nader convinced the Supreme Court to protect commercial speech, but from campaign finance restrictions to smoking labels, corporations are now using First […]
David Upham on Natural Law and Originalism
Michael Ramsey
At Liberty Law Blog, David Upham (guest blogging): The Propriety and Necessity of Natural Law to Originalism. From the core of the argument: In one important, but limited respect, commentators generally acknowledge that natural-law considerations belong to, and are thus proper to, the originalist inquiry. The originalist seeks to know what the authors of a constitutional […]
Akhil Amar and Neal Katyal on Taking DNA Samples
Michael Ramsey
In the New York Times, Akhil Reed Amar and Neal K. Katyal: Why the Court Was Right to Allow Cheek Swabs. From the introduction: Justice Scalia summarized his scathing dissent from the bench — a rare act that signals sharp disagreement. His opinion opened with these lines: “The Fourth Amendment forbids searching a person for evidence of […]