Mike Rappaport updates his original post on the interpretation and construction distinction with this: What is clear is that the four constructionists emphasize different things, appear to be motivated by different concerns, and describe their positions differently. That is what I meant by saying that the different scholars “had different conceptions of construction.” Larry [Solum] […]
Author Archive | Randy Barnett
Whatever It Is, He’s Against It
Last week, I was at the University of San Diego at a marvelous conference on originalist works in progress, which was organized by Professors Michael Rappaport and Michael Ramsey of the USD faculty. Today, on The Right Coast, Mike Rappaport posts this: One particular highlight of the conference was the last session, in which Larry […]
The Green Police
I saw this ad during the Super Bowl–sorry, I mean “The Big Game”–yesterday, and originally thought it was some sort of political issue ad. Although it is funny, in a creepy way, it is not clear to me what the ad agency and Audi are saying here about The Green Police (besides buy an Audi […]
Inalienable DVD Now Shipping
I just received my DVD copy of Inalienable from Amazon. Readers of this blog know about my playing the part of an assistant prosecutor in this film, which I live blogged here. Now that the film has been released the experience seems more real somehow. Here is the trailer for the film (in which I […]
FDR Knew Better
Jack Balkin thinks FDR’s lengthy analysis of the Constitution in his address to Congress is equivalent to President Obama’s drive-by 72 word inaccurate polemic about Citizen’s United. But Jack is a master of appreciating context–not to mention modern media–and the context here makes all the difference. In addition to being a substantive constitutional critique, which […]
Whence Comes Section One? (Second Notice)
By Randy Barnett on January 26, 2010 2:42 pm in Civil Rights, Constitutional Theory, Fourteenth Amendment, History, Originalism
Last week, when I posted a link to my new article, Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment, I received several messages telling me that SSRN was inaccessible. Presumably, it is working now, so if you were unable to download it, you should try again. Here is the link, and here […]
Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment
In honor of Lysander Spoooner’s birthday, I am pleased to make available on SSRN my new paper, Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment, which I have been researching and writing for over a year. In it, I discuss 13 abolitionists who made important constitutional arguments on various aspects of slavery […]
Happy Birthday Lysander Spooner!
Today is Lysander Spooner’s birthday. Born in 1808, Spooner was a lawyer, abolitionist, entrepreneur, prolific writer and eventually an individualist anarchist. Political science professor and Spooner scholar Helen Knowles offers her birthday tribute on her new blog, Irresistible Clearness, which is named after a passage from United States v. Fisher by Chief Justice John Marshall […]
More on Unconstitutionality of Health Insurance Mandate
I was on NPR this morning with a one sentence paragraph explanation of why the health insurance mandate is unconstitutional. Hear it here. (, it was a long sentence, taken from a much longer interview. Even that sentence did not make it into the printed version of the story at the link.) I found it […]
New Blog: First One @ One First
Georgetown law student Mike Sacks has a really cool new blog called First One @ One First, which he explains in his opening post First Post @ First One @ One First: My name is Mike Sacks. I am a third-year law student at Georgetown interested in legal journalism and the intersection of law and […]
Constitutional Interpretation vs Construction
Last week at at Federalist Society law professors meeting in New Orleans, I debated my friend San Diego law prof Mike Rappaport of The Right Coast on whether the distinction now being made between constitutional interpretation and constitutional construction was helpful or hurtful to originalism. I argued for the importance of the distinction and maintained […]
Fear Not Sherlock Holmes
Having read all the Sherlock Holmes novels and short stories as a boy, I have always been a big fan. And I really like Robert Downey Jr. in just about anything he does. So beginning last summer I was mortified by the preview of the new film Sherlock Holmes. The trailer made the film out […]
Three Bad Arguments Against the Obama Administration
Yesterday, while driving from Northern to Southern California, I listened to much more talk radio than normal. Three faulty criticisms of the Obama administration were repeated by hosts and callers alike. First, in the recordings I heard, Secretary Janet Napolitano, of whom I am no fan, said that once the incident took place, the “system […]
Updates to Two Previous Posts
I have been on the road all day and unable to update two previous posts in a timely manner. Although I have now done so, given the delay, I wanted to call readers attention to these two updates. The first concerns the TSA directive I posted yesterday. Had I to do it over, I would […]
TSA Security Directive SD-1544-09-06
I am posting these without any editorial comment, express or implied, so readers can be aware of official policy, rather than rumors. These rules state they are applicable to foreign flights bound for the US and effective until December 30th (from BoardingArea via Gizmodo) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY Transportation Security Administration Aviation Security Directive […]