The Farmer letters went well beyond asserting the case against taxation without representation; they also helped clarify American constitutional thinking on other questions, including: Which government responsibilities should be exercised centrally and which locally?
John Dickinson’s ‘Farmer’ Letters on Their 250th Anniversary Read More »
. . . law professors often corrupt their understanding of the Constitution with their own political preferences. . .
A Response to a “Living Constitutionalist” Read More »
. . . the problem centers in specific institutions: American law schools and the higher reaches of the judiciary.
Part II: What Can We Do About Legal Realism and Its Promotion of Judicial Activism? Read More »
The Founders erected the American legal system to operate in the context of Anglo-American judicial values. The rules placed expressly or implicitly in the Constitution . . . were designed to operate in that context. However, the context changed.
Part I: Judicial activism: Here’s a core reason for it you’ve never heard about Read More »
Of course, it is one thing to criticize, but another to try to craft something better.
Drafting a Balanced Budget Amendment: It’s tougher than you might think Read More »
Observe how many of the Left’s ideological buttons the plaintiff’s lawyers pushed: non-profit, recycling, mandatory government fee, poverty, disabilities, environment—and that interminably-overused mantra: community.
If you want to win a Supreme Court case, it helps to play to “progressive” values Read More »
The Supreme Court’s decision this week in Matal v. Tam sent a clear warning to government officials who seek to curtail speech
Supreme Court’s Ruling Against the PC Police Read More »
Legal commentators have spread a good deal of ink trying to show that the Constitution authorizes the enormous expansion of
The Define and Punish Clause doesn’t authorize vast federal power either Read More »
Although there were scattered antecedents, “runaway convention” claims and certain associated myths were first distributed widely during the 1960s and
Fake News: How Leading Liberal Newspapers Spread the “Runaway Convention” Story Read More »
In this short essay, constitutional historian Rob Natelson thumbnails the three-centuries long history of “conventions of the states.” When delegations
The Convention of States in American History Read More »
The convention of the states meeting in Phoenix, Arizona in September will need a set of rules. Moreover, that convention
Convention Rules for a Convention of the States Read More »
Congress’s power to regulate immigration comes from the law of nations—the meaning of which many constitutional commentators are unfamiliar.
Where Congress’s Power to Regulate Immigration Comes From Read More »
