OK, I totally get the whole IS-OUGHT distinction thing. The Constitution IS what the Supreme Court says it is. The Constitution OUGHT TO BE what the text says. Although a little jurisprudentially sophisticated for my taste, I think I grasp this. But let me ask what has to be a simple question for my more […]
Author Archive | Randy Barnett
Tribute to Anatomy of a Murder:
On Big Hollywood, Kurt Schlichter has a tribute to my all time favorite lawyer movie: Anatomy of a Murder. Read the whole thing, and watch the trailer, but here is a taste: The plot is simple. Small-town lawyer Paul Biegler (Stewart), who is more concerned with fishing than his practice, is talked into meeting Army […]
Professor Jost Replies:
On The Politico’s Arena, Professor Timothy Stoltzfus Jost, of Washington and Lee, replied to my Politico post on the constitutionality of a health insurance mandate (that I reproduced here yesterday): I interpreted Fred’s question to ask whether the current Supreme Court would uphold the constitutionality of an individual mandate, not to ask my for my […]
Is Mandatory Health Insurance Unconstitutional?:
In the The Politico’s Arena, we are debating Rivkin and Casey’s Wall Street Journal Op-ed that Jonathan notes below. While my take on this issue differs somewhat from his, in my contribution (here), I respond to this rather catty post by Washington & Lee law professor Timothy Stoltzfus Jost. This is what I wrote: OK, […]
Is Mandatory Health Insurance Unconstitutional?:
In the The Politico’s Arena, we are debating Rivkin and Casey’s Wall Street Journal Op-ed that Jonathan notes below. While my take on this issue differs somewhat from his, in my contribution (here), I respond to this rather catty post by Washington & Lee law professor Timothy Stoltzfus Jost. This is what I wrote: OK, […]
Men & Women in Film:
Men in Film Video by Philip Scott Johnson Women in Film:
“Now he belongs to the English department”:
Sean Wilentz has a marvelous review essay in the New Republic entitled Who Lincoln Was in which he critiques a series of recent books about Lincoln. I highly recommend it and cannot adequately summarize all it covers. Wilenz’s basic point is this: The defamatory image of Lincoln as a conventional white racist, whose chief cause […]
Anarchy and Development:
I have not yet read Anarchy and Development: An Application of the Theory of Second Best by Peter T. Leeson & Claudia R. Williamson, but the title and abstract sound interesting: Could anarchy be a constrained optimum for weak and failing states? Although a limited government that protects citizens’ property rights and provides public goods […]
Vote For/Against Public Option:
I recently joined the Arena Players on The Arena at Politico, though I have yet to post anything. Today’s topic is a debate on the so-called “public option” of a government provided health insurance plan and features Maggie Mahar (FOR), of the Century Foundation HealthBeat blog, and Stuart Butler (AGAINST) of the Heritage Foundation. You […]
100 Best Movie Lines in 200 Seconds:
Although one can quibble with the selection, this is pretty impressive:
Invisible Hand Fails Us:
Why no posts since Friday? That’s easy. We all thought the Invisible Hand would post in our absence.
VC’s Ilya Somin About to Testify:
Just minutes from now, my co-blogger Ilya Somin is will testify about property rights in the Sotomayor confirmation hearings. You can watch the testimony live here. He is the last witness on the current panel. Sitting directly behind this panel is the next one, which includes my Georgetown colleague Nick Rosenkrantz, GMU law professor Neomi […]
Revisiting Rosen:
On Contentions, Jenifer Rubin recalls Jeff Rosen’s preemptive warnings about Judge Sotomayor: After two days of Sotomayor testimony I thought of Jeffrey Rosen
Senatorial Deference to the President’s Supreme Court Picks?
Over on The Right Coast, Mike Rappaport asks Is the President Entitled to Deference on His Supreme Court Nominees?: Yes, say many right wing legal commentators. But the question is why? It is sometimes said that the Constitution gives the President the decision of which person to nominate and therefore the Senate should defer to […]
We’re Number 2! (or 3):
Paul Caron presents his Law Prof Blog Rankings, which are the updated quarterly traffic rankings (visitors and page views) of the Top 35 blogs edited by law professors with publicly available SiteMeters for the most recent 12-month period (July 1, 2008 – June 30, 2009). The Volokh Conspiracy is #2 for page views (15,467,726) after […]