New Book: Myron Magnet on Clarence Thomas
Michael Ramsey
Recently published: Clarence Thomas and the Lost Constitution, by Myron Magnet (Encounter Books 2019). Here is the book description from Amazon: When Clarence Thomas joined the Supreme Court in 1991, he found with dismay that it was interpreting a very different Constitution from the one the framers had written―the one that had established a federal […]
Andy Grewal: The President’s Tax Returns
Michael Ramsey
Andy Grewal (University of Iowa – College of Law) has posted The President's Tax Returns (39 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Article examines whether congressional committees enjoy the unrestricted authority to demand a President’s tax returns. It concludes that they do not. Though a federal statute seemingly compels the IRS to furnish, […]
John Harrison: Public Rights, Private Privileges, and Article III
Michael Ramsey
John C. Harrison (University of Virginia School of Law) has posted Public Rights, Private Privileges, and Article III (Georgia Law Review, forthcoming) (48 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This article addresses the constitutional justification for adjudication by executive agencies that rests on the presence of a public right. The Supreme Court most recently relied […]
Our Fiduciary President
Mike Rappaport
One important area of constitutional law involves the Take Care Clause of the Constitution. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of disagreement about the Clause’s meaning. Happily, at the Originalism Works in Progress Conference held at the University of San Diego School of Law last February, a new paper on the subject, "'Faithful Execution' and […]
Will Selinger on Keegan Callanan on Montesquieu
Michael Ramsey
At Law & Liberty, Will Salinger (University College London, History) reviews Keegan Callanan's book Montesquieu’s Liberalism and the Problem of Universal Politics (Cambridge University Press 2018): Correcting Our View of Montesquieu. From the introduction: Living as we do in a time of widespread uncertainty about the future of liberalism, we can easily forget how different […]
Laurence H. Tribe & Joshua Matz
Michael Ramsey
Laurence H. Tribe (Harvard Law School) and Joshua Matz (Georgetown University Law Center) have posted To (Pretend To) Review Our Book (23 pages) (responding to Michael Stokes Paulsen's review of their book To End a Presidency) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: In the world according to Professor Michael Stokes Paulsen, impeachment turns out to […]
Skylar Croy: Rethinking Critiques of ‘New Originalism’
Michael Ramsey
Skylar Croy (University of Wisconsin – Madison, Law School, Students) has posted The Problem of Change: Rethinking Critiques of 'New Originalism' (Drake Law Review Discourse, March 2019) (18 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: How do originalists deal with change? It turns out many minimize the issue. Those that have dealt with it have offered […]
Ethan Leib & James Brudney: The Belt-and-Suspenders Canon
Michael Ramsey
Ethan J. Leib (Fordham University School of Law) and James J. Brudney (Fordham University School of Law) have posted The Belt-and-Suspenders Canon (Iowa Law Review, Vol. 105, forthcoming 2020) (36 pages) on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This Essay christens a new canon into the doctrines of statutory interpretation, one that can counter the too-powerful canon […]
Why Madison’s Phrase About Enlarging Federal Power Was Removed From the Ninth Amendment
Andrew Hyman
Thanks to Mike Rappaport for discussing the Ninth Amendment with me. He quotes Madison’s draft of June 8, 1789: The exceptions here or elsewhere in the constitution, made in favor of particular rights, shall not be so construed as to diminish the just importance of other rights retained by the people; or as to enlarge the […]
Ed Whelan versus Michael Dorf on Title VII and Sexual Orientation Discrimination
Michael Ramsey
At Verdict, Michael Dorf: SCOTUS LGBT Discrimination Case Will Test Conservative Commitment to Textualism. From the introduction: Last week, the Supreme Court agreed to review three lower court decisions posing the important question whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964—which makes it unlawful for an employer or prospective employer “to discriminate against any individual […]