Neil Duxbury: The General Law Renaissance and the Common Law
Michael Ramsey
Neil Duxbury (London School of Economics – Law School) has posted The General Law Renaissance and the Common Law (102 Notre Dame L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027)) (58 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Of late, there has emerged an important body of legal scholarship sympathetically reassessing the concept of “general law” – unwritten legal norms […]
Lee Strang & Christopher Green: The Declaration of Independence’s Continuing Allure as Constitutional Law
Michael Ramsey
Lee Strang (Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society; Ohio State University – Michael E. Moritz College of Law) & Christopher R. Green (Chase Center for Civics, Culture, and Society; Ohio State University – Michael E. Moritz College of Law) have posted The Declaration of Independence’s Continuing Allure as Constitutional Law (26 pages) on SSRN. Here […]
Cass Sunstein: Interpretation Is Many Things
Charles F. Capps
Cass Sunstein (Harvard) has posted “Interpretation Is Many Things” on SSRN. It is a draft of his contribution to an exchange between us that will appear in the Notre Dame Law Review Reflection (stay tuned for my reply!). Here is the abstract: The word “interpretation” covers a range of practices, including but not limited to […]
Lorianne Updike Schulzke: Sufficient Bills of Rights
Michael Ramsey
Lorianne Updike Schulzke (Yale Law School; Northern Illinois University College of Law) has posted Sufficient Bills of Rights (22 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: Accepted wisdom dictates that the Anti-federalists fought against the Constitution and helped to secure a marked improvement on the Constitution via the Bill of Rights. Yet this account is incomplete. […]
Richard Re on Supreme Court Realignment
Michael Ramsey
At SCOTUSblog, Richard Re: The Supreme Court’s realignment roundup: October Term 2025. From the introduction: A legal realignment has been underway for some years now, in that legal views once associated with the right are now being espoused by the left, and vice versa. This post explores that point as to the Supreme Court’s October Term 2025, adapting […]
Solum: For Constitutional Theory
Charles F. Capps
Lawrence B. Solum (Texas A&M) has posted an updated draft of “For Constitutional Theory” (California Law Review, forthcoming). Solum defends “the enterprise of thinking rigorously and systematically about constitutionalism” against “the view that theorizing about the Constitution is futile—that it is merely rhetorical, that it is indistinguishable from politics, and that it cannot move the […]
Cass Sunstein on Rahimi, Barbara, and “Trapped in Amber”
Charles F. Capps
Cass Sunstein (Harvard) has posted “On Not Being Trapped in Amber” on SSRN. The essay has the dual virtues of being interesting and short, making it well worth reading in its entirety. Sunstein’s topic is the use of analogical reasoning, or judgments of “relevant similarity,” in cases such as United States v. Rahimi and Trump […]
Justin Hughes: Constitutional Copyright and the Meaning of Postponed Matters
Michael Ramsey
Justin Hughes (Loyola Law School Los Angeles) has posted Constitutional Copyright and the Meaning of Postponed Matters (74 J. Copyright Soc’y U.S.A. ___ (forthcoming)) (77 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: The U.S. Constitution became an inspiration for the writing of organic laws all over the world; its provisions were often copied, its ideas even […]
Steven Calabresi on Lawrence v. Texas
Michael Ramsey
At SCOTUSblog, Steven Calabresi: The “born free and equal” clauses and Lawrence v. Texas. From the introduction: This is the third of seven introductory articles on the relevance for constitutional law of the “born free and equal” clauses, which appeared in the Declaration of Independence and in six out of 12 state constitutions when the federal […]
Alan Beck on “Dangerous and Unusual” Arms
Michael Ramsey
Alan Beck, the prevailing counsel in Wolford v. Lopez, has filed this amicus brief on behalf of the Hawaii Rifle Association in Viramontes v. Cook County (the Supreme Court’s pending AR-15 case). From the summary of argument: This Court should not find the rifles at issue in this litigation are dangerous and unusual weapons. That is […]