Author Archive | Randy Barnett

The webpage for the new Georgetown Center for the Constitution has gone live here.  You can see some nice pictures of the first two events of the center — Justice Scalia’s book signing event and a debate on future Affordable Care Act challenges — here.  In addition, the application for the 2-year Georgetown Center for […]

This day in liberty: On December 6, 1865 the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted by the requisite majority of states, thus abolishing slavery in the United States.

The Examiner’s Tim Carney had a nice column yesterday on how the House GOP is operating in the pocket of the entertainment industry when it comes to copyright entitled, GOP sides with Mickey Mouse on copyright reform.  The column was provoked by the decision of the Republican Study Committee to withdraw a report urging reform of […]

Earlier this week, James Taranto of Best of the Web (which I faithfully read every day) disparaged the challenge to Obamacare being brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a challenge that is based on the fact that the “tax” in the Affordable Care Act did not originate in the House as  seems to be required […]

On November 20th, after visiting my seminar, Recent Books on the Constitution, Justice Scalia held a book signing for Reading Law at Georgetown Law for the inaugural event of the new Georgetown Center for the Constitution that I will be directing. The Georgetown Center for the Constitution will be devoted to studying and developing originalist […]

The Harvard Law Review‘s annual Supreme Court Foreword is the highest profile article published by America’s premier law review. This year’s Foreword, by Stanford law professor Pam Karlan, is entitled “Democracy and Disdain” (a take off on Richard Hart Ely’s classic book, Democracy and Distrust). As Orin noted a couple weeks back, the Review asked […]

Unlike what you have seen before (unless you’ve seen this one, of course). Their voices are amazing.

Recently Paul Clement’ offered this defense of federal tort reform on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce.  Today, the Independence Institute’s Rob Natelson offers a short critique entitled, Did the Founders’ Constitution Permit Federal Tort Reform?  Like Rob, I favor state tort reform on policy grounds.  And also like Rob, I am deeply skeptical of Congressional power […]

The Fifth Annual Rosenkranz Debate was held last Saturday during The Federalist Society’s 2012 National Lawyers Convention.  The topic was “Natural Law Should Inform Constitutional Law” although I think the title should have been “Natural Rights Should Inform Constitutional Law” since that was what was actually debated.   The advocates were Prof. Hadley P. Arkes (Edward N. […]

In my Wall Street Journal op-ed, I mentioned the Republican Liberty Caucus, which works within the Republican Party, as an alternative to the Libertarian Party.  (Years ago, I advocated an alternative strategy for the Libertarian Party:  field libertarian candidates to run as Republican or Democrats in uncontested congressional districts, where they would be assured something […]

Nick Gillespie has a very thoughtful reply to my WSJ Op-ed, The Mistake That Is the Libertarian Party, that ran on election day.  I highly recommend his reply, which you can read here.  I still believe that the 40 year experiment with the Libertarian Party has only served to make both parties less libertarian.  And […]

In tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal is my op-ed, The Mistake That Is the Libertarian Party.  Here are some excerpts: In 1972, the Libertarian Party nominated University of Southern California philosophy Prof. John Hospers as its first presidential candidate and ran Tonie Nathan for vice president. When Roger MacBride, a Virginia Republican elector pledged to Richard […]

The Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a motion in its pending suit against Obamacare asking the judge (1) to rule that, when it enacted the Senate health care reform bill that includes a “tax” for not purchasing health insurance, Congress violated the Origination Clause, which says that all revenue bills must originate in the House; […]

My new paper, From Antislavery Lawyer to Chief Justice:  The Remarkable But Forgotten Career of Salmon P. Chase, has just been uploaded to SSRN.  It will serve as the basis for my Canary-Sumner Lecture at Case Western Reserve University School of Law on September 27th.  Here is the abstract: Salmon P. Chase was as responsible as […]

If you are starting law school in the fall, you will have to take Contracts. May I recommend my recent book, Contracts, which is in the new series from Oxford University Press, called The Oxford Introductions to U.S. Law. It was written to provide law students with an accessible overview of contract law principles and doctrines. […]