Author Archive | Anuj Desai

For my final post, I thought I’d begin a discussion of what I view as some of the broader implications of the examples I’ve been discussing. On first blush, I admit, my work seems incredibly obscure and esoteric. Even if it isn’t obscure — actually, even if it is — one might still legitimately ask […]

Today, I’ll describe my last example of the phenomenon of a constitutional principle deriving from an embedded characteristic of the Post Office: the Fourth Amendment right of communications privacy. As readers of this blog no doubt know, communications privacy issues have been big news for a long time. Orin Kerr, for example, has written extensively […]

Today, I hope to explain the connection between the Post Office as a monopoly on long-distance communication and the constitutional principle known as the “right to receive” ideas. Before doing so, though, I just want to mention one thing in response to some comments. After my first post, several commenters began a discussion about the […]

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, my principal claim is that eighteenth-century decisions about postal policy — legislative decisions — shaped judge-made constitutional doctrine much later. To put it simply, the judges interpreting the Constitution in my examples were effectively constitutionalizing legislation; they took earlier principles that came from policy choices made by Congress and embedded […]

Okay, I admit it, I used Hillary Clinton in my subject heading primarily to (a) pique your interest; and (b) get more search engine hits [Apparently, guest-blogging doesn’t give me access to Eugene’s metatags!]. I promise, though, that she’ll make an appearance … and soon. But first, let me start with a thank-you to Eugene […]