Author Archive | Randy Barnett

The Federalist Society’s journal Engage has an interesting Symposium on the National Security Agency’s Bulk Data Seizures and FISA Surveillance Programs.  The symposium includes my very brief essay with Cato’s Jim Harper, Why NSA’s Bulk Data Seizures Are Illegal and Unconstitutional.  In it we contend that: Rather than airy and untethered speculations about “reasonable expectations,” the courts […]

Last week, I joined with Michael Ramsey (San Diego) Michael Rappaport (San Diego), Chris Green (Mississippi), Gary Lawson (Boston University), John McGinnis (Northwestern) and Todd Zywicki (George Mason) on an amicus Brief of Originalist Scholars in NLRB v. Noel Canning.  Much of the evidence cited is taken from Michael Rappaport’s path-breaking 2005 article, “The Original Meaning of the Recess […]

Over on The Daily Caller, Josh Blackman offers a tongue-in-cheek parody Thanksgiving Address that could have been given by President Obama in November 2009 to honestly defend the yet-to-be-released Senate originated Affordable Care Act.  But his parody is fair and nuanced enough to provide a template for what an honest description and defense of Obamacare […]

Seth Barrett Tillman writes: The Senate’s use of the nuclear option pins any defects in the Affordable Care Act (“ACA”) on the Democrats. Until the nuclear option was used, Democrats said that they had to pass an arguably defective bill because they could not get around a minority Republican-led filibuster in the Senate. In other words, […]

On the off chance that you have not watched the 6 individual segments of my SCOTUSBlog “On Camera” Interview, here is the link to the interview in its entirety.

This is an historic moment on our constitutional history. With the change of Senate rules today by a simple majority to [allow a simple majority to] close debate on judicial nominations, a Rubicon has been crossed. Restoring the Lost Constitution has now been made far more feasible, and will make the 2014 & 2016 of enormous […]

Alan K Henderson offers this Photoshop contribution:

It was an honor, and a real hoot.  

Here are the last two segments of my SCOTUSBlog “On Camera” interview.  Kudos to interviewer Fabrizio di Piazza for his insightful questions that seemed to anticipate where my thoughts were going next. Being there:   Justice’s Arc:

In today’s Wall Street Journal, I review Clark Neily’s most excellent book, Terms of Engagement: How Our Courts Should Enforce the Constitution’s Promise of Limited Government.  Here is a taste: In “Terms of Engagement,” Clark Neily draws upon his extensive experience as a lawyer for the libertarian Institute for Justice to expose this pervasive legal maneuvering […]

I cannot say I was particularly impressed with Ian Millhiser’s article, How Conservatives Abandoned Judicial Restraint, Took Over The Courts And Radically Transformed America, except insofar as it was actually pretty impressive how he was able to dredge up, dust off, and then somehow include in a single essay pretty much every Leftie trope about conservative […]

Here is the panel on Textualism and Constitutional Interpretation from the Federalist Society Lawyer’s Convention last Friday.  It was a dynamite line-up with the super smart (and fellow Guggenheim Fellow) Richard Primus (Michigan), conservative originalist John McGinnis (Northwestern), and originalism critic Mitch Berman (Texas).  I go first to defend originalist constitutional interpretation and distinguish it […]

The Georgetown Center for the Constitution is now receiving applications for 2-year fellowships for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years. Fellows will work on their scholarship as they prepare to enter the law teaching market, and are Visiting Lecturers to teach their own seminar on the subject of their research and co-teach with me.  The […]

I have never before been interviewed at such length, so we got into a lot more than one would normally expect during a video interview. And I did not remember all the ground we covered until I watched these videos. Part 3:   Part 4:  

You might want to try my book: The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Contracts.  Here is the publisher’s description: Written by a leading expert in the field, The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law: Contracts provides students with ready access to the basic doctrines of contract law, the story behind their evolution, and the rationales for their continued existence. […]