Miller v. Alabama: Mandatory Life Sentences for Juvenile Homicide Offenders as Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Mike Rappaport
Miller v. Alabama is an interesting case decided by the Supreme Court last June which has not received that much attention. In Miller, the Supreme Court held that the Eight Amendment forbids as cruel and unusual punishment a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without the possibility of parole for juvenile homicide offenders. In this […]
Mike Greve on the Taxing Power Argument
Mike Rappaport
At the Liberty Law Blog, my co-blogger, Mike Greve, defends Michael Paulsen against my criticism of Paulsen’s defense of Chief Justice Roberts’s tax argument in Sibelius. While Paulsen describes himself as an originalist, and Greve is uncomfortable with orthodox originalism, it is important to recognize that Greve and Paulsen have something very much in common. They are both strong Hamiltonians and […]
Mike Paulsen’s Defense of Chief Justice Roberts’ Health Care Opinion
Originalist law professor Mike Paulsen has written a short essay defending Chief Justice Roberts’s decision upholding the Health Care Law as a tax. It might seem like a serious matter that a right wing originalist endorses Roberts’s decision. Perhaps critics of Roberts’s opinion need to rethink their criticisms. But no such rethinking is necessary, because […]
Justice Ginsburg and the Abstract Meaning Fallacy
Mike Rappaport
As Mike Ramsey noted, the Wall Street Journal has reported on Justice Ginsburg's remarks on the Framers' plans for the Constitution: “The founders of our country were great men with a vision,” Justice Ginsburg said. “They were held back from realizing their idea by the times in which they lived. But, she added, their notion […]
Kurt Lash: Andrew Johnson and the Original Meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause
Michael Ramsey
Kurt T. Lash (University of Illinois College of Law) has posted The Constitutional Referendum of 1866: Andrew Johnson and the Original Meaning of the Privileges or Immunties Clause on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Fourteenth Amendment scholars commonly assume that there is a relative silence in the historical record regarding public discussion of the proposed […]
Should Ben Bernanke Be Impeached?
Mike Rappaport
Over at his Economics One Blog, economist John Taylor discusses a recent speech by the former Wells Fargo Chairman and CEO Dick Kovacevich, who explains how he was forced to take TARP funds by U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke: In his speech, Kovacevich first described how he and the […]
Precedent and the Health Care Decision
Mike Rappaport
At the New Republic, Adrian Vermeule has an excellent essay on precedent. Vermeule makes the following points: 1. “Precedent has limited constraining force, especially in hard cases at the Supreme Court.” And “the Justices are not particularly faithful to their own precedents, let alone to those written by others.” 2. “If the Justices rarely overrule […]
Eric Claeys on The Continuing Unconstitutionality of Obamacare
Mike Rappaport
Eric Claeys has a very interesting piece at NRO arguing that Obamacare is unconstitutional and that opponents of Obamacare should continue to make the argument that it is unconstitutional, despite the Supreme Court’s decision. Here is Eric on the unconstitutionality of Obamacare: To justify the mandate as a tax, Roberts made two major legal errors. […]
James E. Pfander:The Chief or the Court: Article II and the Appointment of Inferior Judicial Officers
Mike Rappaport
James E. Pfander (Northwestern University School of Law) has posted The Chief or the Court: Article II and the Appointment of Inferior Judicial Officers (Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 107, No. 3, 2013) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Each year, the Chief Justice of the United States makes a number of appointments to offices within the […]
Update on Justice Scalia and the Media
Michael Ramsey
Here is the CSPAN interview mentioned earlier. Also, the Justice did an interview with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.