It’s standard to distinguish between constitutional requirements and mere policies. An appropriation for Head Start is a policy, which can be changed however Congress wishes; by contrast, the principle of free speech overrides whatever Congress seeks to do. But there’s something important, rarely unnoticed, and in between — much firmer than mere policies, but falling […]
Author Archive | Cass Sunstein
Holmes’ Haiku
Ok, it’s not quite a haiku. But as sentences in Supreme Court opinions go, it’s not all that far from that: “Property, a creation of law, does not arise from value, although exchangeable — a matter of fact.” That’s from Holmes’ 1918 opinion in INS v. AP. (By the way, we’re still talking about FDR […]
The Greatest Generation
In the last weeks, there has been a ton of attention to the so-called Greatest Generation and to the spirit of those who fought World War II – and to some apparent parallels between that generation and our own. During the opening of the new memorial in Washington, President Bush drew particular attention to that […]