At Public Discourse, Michael Stokes Paulsen: Everything You Need to Know About Constitutional Law.
It’s final exam time at the nation’s law schools. That means it’s time for professors to concoct fiendish hypotheticals for essay exams and for students to cram, trying to sort out the various three-part, two-pronged, quadruple-somersault doctrinal “tests” and “tiers of scrutiny” with which the Supreme Court’s judicial decisions have cluttered the Constitution, and prepare to spit back the doctrinal gobbledygook in some equally incoherent form on the test.
This is what passes for “Constitutional Law” in our law schools these days: a hopeless mash-up of confusing half-truths, quarter-truths, and outright untruths, taught as “law.” For the desperate law student, I offer this super-duper two-part mini-review of everything you really need to know about constitutional law: part one today, and part two tomorrow.
UPDATE — RELATED: Professor Paulsen is guest-blogging on his new book at Volokh Conspiracy, with his open posts focusing on judicial supremacy:
The myth of judicial supremacy
Lincoln versus judicial supremacy
The constitutional case for interposition and nullification
Posted at 9:21 AM