Author Archive | Randy Barnett

I have been somewhat amused at the various reactions to my “libertarian” constitutional quotes of the day. I am not surprised that most have missed my intentions because my intentions are pretty obscure. I think it is now time to clarify. First of all, I was not claiming that any of the writers I am […]

Who wrote: To the Constitution of the United States the term SOVEREIGN, is totally unknown. There is but one place where it could have been used with propriety. But, even in that place it would not, perhaps, have comported with the delicacy of those, who ordained and established that Constitution. They might have announced themselves […]

Who wrote: If it be understood that the powers implied in the specified powers, have an immediate and appropriate relation to them, as means, necessary and proper for carrying them into execution, questions on the constitutionality of laws passed for this purpose, will be of a nature sufficiently precise and determinate for judicial cognizance and […]

Who wrote: Where rights are infringed, where fundamental principles are overthrown, where the general system of laws is departed from, the legislative intention must be expressed with irresistible clearness, to induce a court of justice to suppose a design to effect such objects. (A) John Marshall (B) Andrew Jackson (C) Lysander Spooner (D) Herbert Spencer […]

Here are pictures of the monument to Lysander Spooner that was erected last fall at his birthplace in Athol, Massachusetts. They were taken by the owner of the home, which you can see through the trees in the second photo. Here is a close-up of the marker itself: For more information about Lysander Spooner click […]

Who wrote the following: Nor is our Government to be maintained or our Union preserved by invasions of the rights and powers of the several States. In thus attempting to make our General Government strong we make it weak. Its true strength consists in leaving individuals and States as much as possible to themselves—in making […]

Who wrote the following: The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended […]

This made me LOL. Wait for the line by Samuel L. Jackson (“What happened here was a miracle, and I want you to ____ acknowledge it!”) (Civil comments only please.)

After a few uncivil threads, I am really enjoying reading the exchange generated by the two previous posts. There is much I could comment on, but I will limit myself to a few points. JunkYardLawDog: Yes, indeed courts can act unconstitutionally in their rulings. One virtue of originalism is that it provides a benchmark external […]

In the thread about “judicial negation,” a commentator raised the remarkably resilient myth that judicial review was created or invented in Marbury v. Madison. For those who are interested in the evidence on this question, I offered my article, The Original Meaning of the Judicial Power. Andrew Hyman of ConfirmThem.com agrees, offering Hamilton’s argument from […]

This slogan was suggested to me years ago by Leonard Liggio of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation and it captures nicely the analysis presented in a blog post by Jon Rowe on Judicial Nullification v. Judicial Supremacy…or, Sowell doesn’t get it. Much of what is termed “judicial activism” is simply the Court exercising its judicial […]

In anticipation of the Supreme Court issuing its decision in the Rapanos case, Tim Sandefur (of Positive Liberty blog) and the Pacific Legal Foundation for whom he works has set up a Rapanos Blog. Pacific represents John and Judith Rapanos. Here is its synopsis of the case: Since 1988, John and Judith Rapanos have been […]

While I am linking to old blog posts, I was contacted tonight out of the blue by a cousin I had never met who found me via this blog post of mine from 2004. He had done a Google search for “Harris Barnett Custer” and up popped my post. Yet another cool thing about the […]

A kind reader of the VC sent me the link to the following video that pairs the original images of Michael Jordan with the amazing recreation for the recent Nike commercial that gave me and many others chills every time I watched it. Four comments: (1) The recreation was even more impressive than I thought. […]

Dan Henninger has this column today in the Wall Street Journal about his first time listening to oral argument in the Supreme Court. I know how he felt. My first time was only a few years ago when I went to listen to argument in the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative case, and had the same […]