Michael Dorf on Old and New Originalism
Michael Ramsey
At Dorf on Law, Mike Dorf: Is New Originalism Really Less Determinate Than Old Originalism? A Thought Experiment. From the conclusion: Whether–from the perspective of an originalist–new originalism is a step forward or backwards with respect to determinacy thus depends on what is partly an empirical question: In the run of cases likely to reach […]
Originalism on the Blogs
Mike Rappaport
At Reason.com, Steve Chapman on The Future of Republican Support for the Electoral College
Damon Root on Bork and Libertarian Constitutional Theory
Michael Ramsey
At Reason.com, Damon W. Root: How Robert Bork Changed American Politics (commenting on this essay by Adam White, noted here).
David R. Upham: An Essay on the President’s Constitutional Duty to Prioritize Expenditures
Mike Rappaport
David R. Upham (University of Dallas) has posted "An Essay on the President's Constitutional Duty to Prioritize Expenditures" on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In 2011, the debt-ceiling crisis led several commentators to argue that the Public Debt Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment authorized the President to continue borrowing money on the credit of the United […]
Is Textualism Conservative?
Michael Ramsey
Mike Dorf had this post at Dorf on Law a little while ago on the Posner/Scalia faceoff: Posner Versus Scalia: Posner Wins the War But Loses One Battle. While generally his account of Judge Posner’s review seems a bit credulous, Professor Dorf had this important criticism: Still, on one point, I think Posner's critique falls short. […]
Jim von der Heydt on Targeted Killing and the Jury
Michael Ramsey
At PrawfsBlawg, Jim von der Heydt: The Neglected Institution. The neglected institution is the jury and the context is drone strikes. From the core of the argument: … when is the executive branch legitimized in killing a person retributively? The context, of course, [is] the use of drones in the Middle East. The question is […]
Justice Ginsburg on the Evolving Constitution
Michael Ramsey
At the Wall Street Journal Law Blog, Steve Eder: Justice Ginsburg on Opera and 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 was that society would evolve and […]
Two Non-Originalist Essays on Heller and the Second Amendment
Michael Ramsey
At Dorf on Law, Mike Dorf: Aurora, Gun Control and the Second Amendment. RELATED: Richard C. Boldt (University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law) has posted Decisional Minimalism and the Judicial Evaluation of Gun Regulations (Maryland Law Review, Vol. 71, pg. 1177, 2012) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In District of Columbia […]
Elizabeth Price Foley: Restore Federalism
Michael Ramsey
In the New York Times "Room for Debate" series on what to "omit, add or claify" in the Constitution, Elizabeth Price Foley says Restore Federalism: It Isn't a Bad Word.
Ken Kersch: The Founders and Economic Inequality
Michael Ramsey
Ken Kersch has this interesting post at Balkinization, which begins: A huge amount of “popular” constitutional discourse these days – on the internet, on TV, etc. – is constituted by quotations from the Founders. Many of these, of course, are wrenched out of the context, not only of their times, but even of the broader […]