Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the student sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C. This was the first of what would become a broad movement of sit-in protests as literally thousands of African-American students sat at lunch counters across the South, refusing to leave until they were served. These protests are often […]
Archive | Civil Rights
Whence Comes Section One? (Second Notice)
By Randy Barnett on January 26, 2010 2:42 pm in Civil Rights, Constitutional Theory, Fourteenth Amendment, History, Originalism
Last week, when I posted a link to my new article, Whence Comes Section One? The Abolitionist Origins of the Fourteenth Amendment, I received several messages telling me that SSRN was inaccessible. Presumably, it is working now, so if you were unable to download it, you should try again. Here is the link, and here […]
Comstock and National Security Implications for Detention?
By Kenneth Anderson on January 12, 2010 6:59 pm in Civil Rights, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Executive Branch, Federalism, War on Terror
(Update: Thanks to Ilya for his post above, and Orin for his comment below to this post. Bottom line is that Comstock does not have national security implications.) Could I put a question to the VC staff who are following Comstock? For those of us in the national security area, the whole matter of continued […]
Excluding Unfit Workers: Social Control Versus Social Justice in the Age of Economic Reform
By David Bernstein on January 11, 2010 10:48 am in Civil Rights, Constitutional History, Economic LIberties
I’ve just posted this article, co-authored with Tim Leonard of the Princeton Economics department, on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: Contrary to their modern reputation as egalitarian liberals, many of the original progressive architects of American labor reform were partisans of human inequality. The labor legislation they pioneered was, in important respects, designed to exclude immigrants, […]
DoJ vs. Civil Rights Commission
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights wants to investigate the Department of Justice’s handling of voter intimidation charges against members of the New Black Panther Party in Philadelphia. According to this report, the Justice Department is instructing its attorneys not to cooperate. The commission last week subpoenaed at least two Justice Department lawyers and sought […]
Cato brief in McDonald v. Chicago
By David Kopel on November 23, 2009 2:02 am in Civil Rights, Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Fifth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment
Available here. An outstanding brief, as one might expect. The bulk of the brief (21 pages, comprising Part I) shows that from the Founding Era into through the framing of the Fourteenth Amendment, national citizenship was paramount to state citizenship. Part II briefly argues that Slaughterhouse violated canons of constitutional construction–such as by interpreting the […]
Predicting McDonald
By Randy Barnett on November 18, 2009 9:52 am in Civil Rights, Constitutional History, Constitutional Theory, Guns, Originalism, Property Rights, Supreme Court, Uncategorized
Below, my colleague Orin offers his predictions as to whether the Supreme Court will restore the “lost” Privileges or Immunities Clause to constitutional law. He may well be correct in predicting but a single vote for that proposition, but I remember when many predicted Angel Raich would get 0-1 votes for her Commerce Clause challenge […]
Ricci’s Not Over
The Supreme Court’s decision in Ricc v. DeStefano did not put an end to litigation over the New Haven Fire Department’s use of tests for firefighter promotions. One black firefighter, Michael Briscoe, has filed a disparate impact suit against the city (more here), and other black firefighters have sought to intervene in Ricci on remand. […]