Author Archive | Randy Barnett

It’s the weekend so people seem freer to share their recollections about the topic, so here goes one more round. I suspect it will be the last installment, but who knows? I hope readers find what other readers have to say as interesting as I do. Let me add two of my many college encounters […]

Then there is the following response, typical in my experience of one sort of blogosphere reaction whenever either “liberals” or “the left” are criticized. I interject my comments: Randy I’m eager to move on from the recent flood of posts beating up liberals for not apologizing sufficiently for the reds amongst them. People are reporting […]

My posts on liberal sympathies for communist regimes seems to have struck a nerve. While a few still deny it or continue to offer apologies, most write to tell their own similar experiences–including some very recent. Here are some excerpts. (BTW, I never post the names of correspondents unless given permission to do so.) I […]

Thanks Juan for your post on prominent liberal economists defending the USSR. Another liberal has echoed my previous correspondent denying that liberals ever had a tendency to defend the USSR (for my original post click here): Sorry, but your respondent’s reply seems very much closer to the truth than your more or less claim that […]

In response to my earlier post, Volokh on USSR, in which I related my experience as a student with some of my liberal classmates defending the USSR, a reader offers a predictable response: Now, I can remember, from my college days, a number of campus radicals of various stripes (Spartacists, RCP’s, even, ridiculously enough, self-proclaimed […]

From Buttafly.com: Want to come up with your own conspiracy theory about Bush? Don’t let Al Franken, Michael Moore, and MoveOn.org have all the fun! Use this handy George W. Bush Conspiracy Theory Generator to come up with your own conspiracy theory!* * This tool may not be used to create Democratic presidential candidate speeches […]

Catching up after returning to town, I want to commend Eugene for his moving post yesterday on American supporters of the Soviet Union: A little bit of embarrassment seems to be in order. I would add that this support was widely advocated by some American liberals throughout my childhood and continuing up through college and […]

A few days ago I posted on Originalism and Precedent–The Next Big Issue. In passing, and without elaboration or defense, I noted that, after years of being a nonoriginalist, I had adopted a version of originalism based not on the intentions of the framers, but on the public meaning of the text at the time […]

You can come and question me in person about originalism as my book tour for Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty kicks off this week with four appearances in Washington DC. The public is invited to all events and posters at the schools should indicate the locations of the talks. If you do […]

Steve Bainbridge likes my earlier suggestion in NRO about using the threat of recess appointments to break the downward spiral over judicial nominees–and wants to be nominated himself. I think he would make an excellent choice. In fact, threatening to nominate him might end the downward spiral all by itself! You can read his assessment […]

I cannot blog on the Pickering recess appontment now as I am running out the door to see Urinetown. (Yes, that is the name of the play which I am assured is not a complete downer. I am not holding my breath, though perhaps with that title, I should be). In response to Eugene’s query, […]

A reader responds to my earlier post on boomer politicians in which I wrote, “Now that they are much older and hold political power, they are arguably more puritanical–at least in how they govern–than were their parents.” He retorts: “Naah- they’re just scared to tell the truth because they’re afraid it might lose them votes.” […]

Steve Bainbridge makes an excellent point yesterday in his Kerry’s Pot Joke and Kerry’s Policy on Drugs: Fox News just ran a home video of John Kerry singing along to Puff the Magic Dragon at a private party, during which he fakes puffing on a joint. Fox ran it three times in about 5 minutes […]

Originally I was not an originalist. For most of my career, I rejected originalism because I accepted as valid the standard academic criticisms of the version of originalism that became popular in the 1980s, which was based on the intentions of the framers and justified on grounds of popular sovereignty. Gradually I was moved in […]

It looks like Amazon is now (free) shipping my new book, Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (Princeton), though the formal publication date is February 1st. My book tour starts next week in DC (Georgetown, Caltholic, George Mason & George Washington), and next Monday I will start posting weekly updates of the time […]