How Not to Defend the al-Awlaki Killing
Michael Ramsey
At Powerline, Steven Hayward invokes John Locke (and John Yoo): The dilemma for a responsible president in this case is simply this: Congress might well be persuaded to pass a statute explicitly authorizing the killing of people like al-Awlaki. But once there is a positive statute, there is a target for litigation. . . . […]
20 Years of Justice Thomas
Mike Rappaport
It has been approximately 20 years since Justice Clarence Thomas was confirmed as an Associate Justice. Clearly, Thomas is the most originalist justice on the Court, and with Justice Scalia, has been at the forefront of the originalist renaissance in American Constitutional Law. Justices Thomas and Scalia are an interesting study in contrasts. Scalia appears […]
Originalism on the Web (Updated)
Michael Ramsey
Via Ed Whelan at NRO, Justice Scalia and Justice Breyer will testify at a hearing of the Senate Judiciaty Committee tomorrow (Wednesday, 10/5) on the role of judges. UPDATE: They really did. The video is here. At NPR, Andrea Seabrook describes the hearing: A Matter Of Interpretation: Justices Open Up.
Originalism in the Blogs
Michael Ramsey
At Concurring Opinions, Kaimipono Wenger: The Meaning of the Three-Fifths Clause.
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
At NPR, Nina Totenburg interviews retired Justice John Paul Stevens on his new book Five Chiefs, in which Stevens offers some comments on originalism. As Totenburg reports: Taking on the much debated idea of original intent, the retired justice disputes the notion that anyone today can, with total clarity, know exactly what the framers intended. […]
Originalism in the Blogs
Michael Ramsey
To mark the beginning of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2011 Term, SCOTUS Blog has an extended conversation on what promises to be the Term's most talked about case, the constitutionality of the so-called individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act. David Kopel makes a two-paragraph originalist case against the mandate (re-posted here with citations of his […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
A FiveBooks interview with Slate's Dahlia Lithwick (hardly an originalist, or even a sympathizer) on books about Supreme Court Justices; two of her five picks are Joan Biskupic's American Original (on Scalia) and Clarence Thomas' My Grandfather's Son. On Scalia, Lithwick says the Second Amendment case District of Columbia v. Heller was a tour de […]
Update: The Global Constitution?
Michael Ramsey
In my post yesterday about the al-Awlaki affair, I asked whether substantial originalist work had been done on the question whether under its original meaning the Bill of Rights applied abroad. Will Baude writes to point me to this article, which I had forgotten: J. Andrew Kent, A Textual and Historical Case Against the Global Constitution […]
Originalism on the Web
Michael Ramsey
Harold Meyerson in The American Prospect: Did the Founding Fathers Screw Up? Gridlock in Washington Is No Accident. It's Built into the Constitution.
What Should Originalists Think about al-Awlaki?
Michael Ramsey
Prompted by the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen, NRO has re-posted last year’s debate between Kevin Williamson and Andrew McCarthy on the legality of targeting al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen. There have been a number of good analyses posted today as well – for opposing sides, here’s Jack Goldsmith in the […]