Author Archive | Randy Barnett

Tomorrow evening, Thursday, October 28, I will be delivering the seventh annual free Brandt Foundation Lecture on my book, “Restoring the Lost Constitution” (now available on Kindle!) at Boise State University. The lecture will begin at 7pm in the Student Union Jordan Ballroom and is made possible by Boise State’s College of Business and Economics […]

I want to thank everyone at NYU, and especially my host Richard Epstein, for my wonderful visit there last week. I really enjoyed meeting and talking with the students and faculty there, and was grateful for the wonderful turnout for my Hayek Lecture, “Commandeering the People: Popular Sovereignty and the Individual Insurance Mandate.” NYU has […]

I thank Orin for his thoughtful response and believe I understand much better our areas of disagreement. I am happy to discuss the “line drawing” problem instead of “slippery slopes.” In McDonald, there was always a serious line drawing problem with reviving the Privileges or Immunities Clause. But there is no comparable line drawing problem […]

In an earlier post, Orin compares the current challenges to the constitutionality of the individual insurance mandate to debates on this blog over the case of McDonald v. Chicago. But there are some marked differences between the two challenges, and I don’t believe he recollects accurately the nature of the debate we had over McDonald. […]

Because I leave for my lecture in less than an hour, I cannot do full blog post on the decision. But here is a statement that will appear on healthcarelawsuits.org. In its “talking points” today, the White House claims that the 21 state attorney’s general challenging the constitutionality of the health care reform act are […]

Today or tomorrow, we are expecting a ruling on the government’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit against the Patents Protection and Affordable Care Act in Florida district court. Someone sent me what purports to be the “talking points” memo being circulated by Jeff Cruz of the White House “Office of Public Engagement.” I figured that […]

Tomorrow, Thursday, I will be giving the 6th Annual Friedrich A. Von Hayek Lecture at NYU School of Law. The lecture is open to the public and will begin at 6pm at Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South. The title, is “Commandeering the People: Popular Sovereignty and the Health Insurance Mandate.” Richard Epstein, who is […]

The American Spectator magazine has a balanced article, by Philip Klein entitled, “Is It Time for a Convention?,” about the pros and cons of calls for an Article V amendments convention. It includes this: AT THE TIME of the founding, the ability of the states to call a convention to propose amendments was seen as […]

I have no idea what Wiki US News is, but it employs some amazing translation software. Here is the actual quote from me in the Associated Press story of last night: Randy Barnett, who teaches constitutional law at Georgetown University, said Steeh’s ruling could be cited by lawyers trying to persuade other judges. “This is […]

Story on Governor McDonnell’s endorsement of the Repeal Amendment is here.

Judge Steeh’s decision yesterday dismissing the Commerce and Necessary and Proper Clause challenge to the individual mandate was certainly not welcome news to those of us who believe the mandate to be unconstitutional. But his remarkably thin opinion brings to the fore the revolutionary implications of upholding the individual mandate without addressing them. First, that […]

As Ilya notes, District Court Judge Steeh today dismissed a claim that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act exceeds Congress authority under the Commerce Clause. I agree with his assessment of the opinion, with one exception. I do not believe Judge Steeh relied upon existing Supreme Court doctrine because of his claim that this […]

Ilya has posted a link to his brief for the Washington Legal Foundation contesting the constitutionality of the individual health insurance mandate for the motion for summary judgment now pending before Judge Hudson who previously denied the government’s motion to dismiss. My brief with the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute can be found […]

In response to Virginia Speaker William Howell and my op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, The Case for a “Repeal Amendment”, the Las Vegas Review-Journal decided to poll Nevadans on their views of an amendment allowing the legislatures of 2/3 of the states to repeal any federal law or regulation. This is the first such […]

On Thursday, October 14th, I will be giving the Sixth Annual Friedrich A. von Hayek Lecture at New York University. i have just uploaded to SSRN the article on which that lecture will be based, which will be published in the N.Y.U. Journal of Law and Liberty. It is entitled: Commandeering the People: Why the […]