The Originalism Blog

The Blog of the Center for the Study of Constitutional Originalism at the University of San Diego School of Law

Category: Film

Jeffrey Pojanowski: Neoclassical Administrative Law
Michael Ramsey

Jeffrey A. Pojanowski (Notre Dame Law School) has posted Neoclassical Administrative Law (Harvard Law Review, Vol. 133, 2019, forthcoming) (54 Pages) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract: This article introduces an approach to administrative law that reconciles a more formalist, classical understanding of law and its supremacy with the contemporary administrative state. Courts adopting this approach, […]

Mark Pulliam and the Old Originalism
Mike Rappaport

I have been a little late in publishing some posts on Privileges or Immunities, so Mike Ramsey has reported on some responses to my posts (on the Liberty Law Blog) before I even published the posts here.   Today and tomorrow I will be publishing two posts that were early parts of the conversation.  Below is […]

Devin Watkins Responds to Kurt Lash on Privileges or Immunities
Michael Ramsey

At Law and Liberty, Devin Watkins:  The Unenumerated Rights of the Privileges or Immunities Clause.  From the introduction: Does the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities Clause include unenumerated rights, like the right to earn an honest living or make contracts? Professor Kurt Lash argued in a recent article that it does not. But that seems to be […]

Will Foster on Eric Segall on First Amendment Originalism
Michael Ramsey

Will Foster comments:    I noticed you commented on Eric Segall's positive review of Jud Campbell's natural rights work on your blog. Admittedly, I have not yet had time to do more than skim Prof. Campbell's work, but I am already very skeptical of his conclusions (largely for the reasons you mention), thoroughly-supported though they […]

Mark Pulliam Responds to Originalist Critics
Michael Ramsey

Originalist commentator Mark Pulliam has been drawing some originalist criticisms.  Here are his responses:  At Misrule of Law, Making Constitutional Law Great Again (responding to Edward Ehler, Don’t Read the Constitution the Way Robert Bork Did).  From the introduction: Claremont-trained political philosophers represent some of the strongest voices in conservative intellectual circles, but many of […]

Apodaca, Ramos, Incorporation and Kurt Lash
Michael Ramsey

At Josh Blackman's suggestion, I took a closer look at Apodaca v. Oregon, the 1972 Supreme Court case that found the unanimous jury requirement not to apply to the states, even though the Court had previously found the Sixth Amendment to apply such a rule to the federal government.  (As noted here, the Supreme Court […]

Anita Krishnakumar: Backdoor Purposivism
Michael Ramsey

Anita S. Krishnakumar (St. John's University – School of Law) has posted Backdoor Purposivism (forthcoming, Duke Law Journal, Vol. 69, 2020) (67 pages) on SSRN.  Here is the abstract:  It has become standard, among statutory interpretation commentators, to declare that “We are all textualists now.” The comment stems from the observation that in the modern, post-Scalia […]

Eric Segall on Jud Campbell on Originalism and the First Amendment
Michael Ramsey

At Dorf on Law, Eric Segall: Justice Thomas, Jud Campbell, and Free Speech Originalism.  From the beginning:  Professor Jud Campbell (whom I have met only a few times casually) at the end of his excellent Yale Law Journal article titled "Natural Rights and the First Amendment," concluded the following: The First Amendment … was not designed or […]

Treaty Originalism and Cougar Den
Michael Ramsey

This week's Supreme Court decision in Washington State Department of Licensing v. Cougar Den Inc. is all about treaty originalism.  The case turns on the meaning of "the right, in common with citizens of the United States, to travel upon all public  highways," which is reserved to members of the Yakama Tribe by an 1855 […]