Author Archive | Randy Barnett

Over the past few weeks, I have had two interesting experiences with the fact checking process of the MSM: the New Yorker and the New York Times to be precise. The New Yorker was the first to contact me to fact check Margaret Talbot’s story on Justice Scalia. In order to show that the Justice […]

This is an awkward post to write. In an earlier post, I mentioned in passing a rumor that “then-Drug Czar” Bill Bennett pressured Judge Douglas Ginsburg to withdraw as a Supreme Court nominee after it was disclosed that he had smoked marijuana as a law professor in the presence of students. Presumably in an effort […]

I have been enjoying the sunny warm weather here in Tucson following my talk at University of Arizona yesterday. Thanks to all the students and faculty who attended. In the meantime, Saul Cornell sent this message in response to my last post about the Joyce Foundation funding of the Second Amendment Research Center at OSU […]

—Ohio State History Professor Saul Cornell, who founded and heads the Second Amendment Research Center at Ohio State sent me the following response to my blog post on the Chicago-Kent symposium on the Second Amendment being funded by the Joyce Foundation: I think you misinterpreted my earlier e-mail about my center. The Center includes all […]

Sometimes we overly diminish the role of individuals when assessing historical developments. That Ronald Reagan was in a position to be President when he was probably changed the direction of the Republican party (and the US) for decades. Because of his distinctive personal characteristics, Bill Clinton was able to get elected when other Democrats of […]

As a former member of the Chicago-Kent faculty, I thought I would add some background on the issues raised by David Hardy (and commented on here by Eugene) concerning the funding of the symposium on the Second Amendment that appeared in the Chicago-Kent Law Review. I was one of the faculty members instrumental in converting […]

This Thursday (4/14 at 12:15 in Room 138), I will be speaking at the University of Arizona law school on Ashcroft v. Raich. Details are here (scroll down). My last speeches of the school year will be: Monday (4/25): Quinnipiac (on Ashcroft v. Raich)(making up for speech that was snowed out) Wednesday (4/27) at The […]

This week, I will be giving three talks on “Medical Cannabis, The Commerce Clause & Arguing in the Supreme Court”: Tuesday (April 5th) at Bridgewater State Thursday (4/7) at Texas Tech Saturday (4/9) at the BU Libertarian Society I describe the program for the BU Liberty Conference here. Registration (free) is here. Other speeches in […]

My reply to Trevor Morrison’s review of Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty in the Cornell Law Review is now available on SSRN here. Because Trevor made four quite different criticisms, each requiring a response, I could not think of a clever unifying title for my reply (which will be published in the […]

My short essay (7 pages) “Grading Justice Kennedy: A Reply to Professor Carpenter” forthcoming in the Minnesota Law Review is now available for downloading on SSRN here. Here is the abstract: In my article, “Justice Kennedy’s Libertarian Revolution: Lawrence v. Texas” (2002-2003 Cato Supreme Court Review 21 (2003)), I claim that Justice Kennedy’s opinion in […]

Libertarian students throughout the Northeast should make plans now to come to the “Cradle of Liberty (& Larry Summers)” to attend the second annual Liberty Conference organized by the Boston University Libertarian Society on Saturday, April 9th at BU. Details and registration information is here. The first 30 people to register will receive a complimentary […]

On Thursday of this week (March 31th), I will be speaking on “Medical Cannabis, The Commerce Clause & Arguing in the Supreme Court” at at Chapman University School of Law at Noon in room 237a. The talk is open to the public. On Friday night (April 1st) I will be speaking on the same topic […]

On Thursday of this week (March 24th), I will be speaking on my book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty, at Princeton University. My lecture is being sponsored by The James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions and the University Center for Human Values and will be held at 4:30 p.m. in […]

This month’s Liberty magazine has an intriguing article by Michael Acree about the psychological attributes that may incline a person to be a liberal, conservative or libertarian. The article, entitled, Who’s Your Daddy? Authority, Asceticism, and the Spread of Liberty, begins with a mention of a talk given by Robert Nozick to a libertarian supper […]

In updating my vita, I discovered that a short essay of mine in the journal The Good Society entitled, The Imperative of Natural Rights in Today’s World, is available on line in pdf format. So I thought I would provide a link (click on the title of the essay or here).