John O. McGinnis: The Court, the Fed, and Our Mixed Regime
Michael Ramsey
John O. McGinnis (Northwestern University – Pritzker School of Law) has posted The Court, the Fed, and Our Mixed Regime (29 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This essay argues that the enduring political concept of the mixed regime is a better way than the separation of powers to understand the operation and dilemmas of […]
Kian Hudson on Originalism
Michael Ramsey
At Liberal Currents, Kian Hudson (Deputy Solicitor General of Indiana): Originalism: Its Problems and Its Promise. Here is the introduction: In 2016 federal prosecutors charged Terance Gamble with violating the federal law prohibiting felons from possessing firearms. Gamble’s case could hardly have been more run-of-the-mill; federal prosecutors bringthousands of these felon-in-possession cases each year. Yet Gamble […]
Corpus Linguistics Briefing in the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Case
Michael Ramsey
A pointer from Neal Goldfarb (LAWnLinguistics): In New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. v. City of New York, the Second Amendment case that's currently before the Surpreme Court, two of the amicus briefs filed support of have the City are based on corpus linguistics. One of them is my brief, which argues that the corpus data undermines Heller and […]
Claimants Win Contracts Clause Case in the Eighth Circuit
Michael Ramsey
In Association of Equipment Manufacturers v. Burgum (Judge Colloton, writing for himself and Judge Stras), with this discussion of the contracts clause's original meaning and subsequent history: As a matter of the text and original meaning of the Contract Clause, there seems to be little doubt that the North Dakota law would be unconstitutional. The […]
More from Eric Segall on Originalism as Our Law
Michael Ramsey
At Dorf on Law, Eric Segall: Originalism as Current Law? Yet Another response to Baude and Sachs. From the introduction: Last Friday, two things happened to me related to originalism. I received in the mail reprints of an article I wrote for Constitutional Commentary (no link yet) called "Originalism Off the Ground." The piece was […]
Two-and-a-Half Cheers for Baude and Sachs’ Positivist Originalism (Part 2)
Will Foster
This is the second of two posts discussing Will Baude and Stephen Sachs’ positivist originalism, as explicated most recently in their article “Grounding Originalism.” My first post defended Baude and Sachs’ thesis (that a form of originalism is “the law” as a matter of social fact) against a powerful recent critique by Eric Segall entitled […]
Two-and-a-Half Cheers for Baude and Sachs’ Positivist Originalism (Part 1)
Will Foster
In a new article entitled “Originalism Off the Ground,” Eric Segall inveighs against the efforts of scholars Will Baude and Stephen Sachs to prove that originalism is currently America’s constitutional positive law. “Our actual law,” Segall contends, is driven by “non-originalist values” (Segall, p. 102). Segall’s writing is, as always, thought-provoking and incisive. But although […]
Nicholas Kahn-Fogel: Property, Privacy, and Justice Gorsuch’s Expansive Fourth Amendment Originalism
Michael Ramsey
Nicholas Alden Kahn-Fogel (University of Arkansas at Little Rock – William H. Bowen School of Law) has posted Property, Privacy, and Justice Gorsuch's Expansive Fourth Amendment Originalism (43 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In Carpenter v. United States, the Supreme Court reaffirmed the continuing vitality of the privacy framework Katz v. United States established […]
Mark David Hall on Andrew Seidel on the Founders and Religion
Michael Ramsey
At Law & Liberty, Mark David Hall (Professor of Politics, George Fox University): Unlearning The Founding Myth (reviewing [harshly] Andrew L. Seidel, The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American). From the introduction: Andrew L. Seidel, an attorney with the Freedom From Religion Foundation, is an atheist, and an angry one at that. His recent book, The […]
William Treanor on Gouverneur Morris and the Constitution
Michael Ramsey
At SCOTUSblog, William Treanor: The Framer’s intent: Gouverneur Morris, the Committee of Style and the creation of the Federalist Constitution. From the introduction: As the federal constitutional convention drew to a close, the delegates appointed the Committee of Style and Arrangement to prepare a final Constitution from the textual provisions that the convention had previously […]