The University of Chicago Law Review recently posted its online symposium on the work of Judge Robert Bork, who passed away last year. The symposium includes essays by several prominent legal scholars, including Steven Calabresi, Bradford Clark, Richard Epstein, John Harrison, Kurt Lash, John McGinnis, and John Yoo. My own contribution, “The Borkean Dilemma: Robert […]
Archive | Conservatism
Ian Millhiser on Me, the Federalist Society, and “Judicial Activism”
Ian Milhiser at ThinkProgress has written an article on the recently concluded Federalist Society National Convention, where he claims it shows that conservatives have embraced wideranging “judicial activism.” He also includes a summary of a discussion he had with me, at the convention. The summary is accurate in so far as it goes, but omits […]
Are Conservative Judges Better? Evidence from Geoff Stone
By Eugene Kontorovich on November 5, 2013 9:25 am in Apppellate Procedure, Conservatism, Judicial Conduct, Judicial Power, Supreme Court
Prof. Geoff Stone argues that conservative Supreme Court justices are more ideologically inflexible and less meritocratic than their liberal counterparts. His evidence for this is that Of the 20 law clerks appointed this Term by the five conservative Justices — Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito, 18 of the 20 — or an astonishing 90 […]
The Problem of Confusing Political Terminology
Co-blogger Eugene Volokh’s excellent post on the sometimes confusing multiple meanings of the word “Jew” call to mind similar confusions in political terminology. For example, the term “conservative” is routinely used to refer to 1) people who are in some sense on the political right, 2) people who oppose changes in the status quo, 3) […]
Is there a Generational Divide over “Judicial Restraint” Between Reaganites and Libertarians?
By Ilya Somin on September 19, 2013 4:23 pm in Conservatism, Federalism, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Judicial Power, Libertarianism
Various commentators such as Garrett Epps, Mark Tushnet, and recent guest-blogger Josh Blackman argue that there is a generational divide among right of center jurists between Reaganite advocates of “judicial restraint” and later, more libertarian figures who are less willing to defer to legislatures and more eager to strike down laws they consider unconstitutional. They […]
Interesting Interview with George Will
Reason TV has an interesting interview with famous Washington Post columnist George Will. Among other things, Will describes how and why he has become more libertarian over the years.
Dick Cheney Unintentionally Explains the Dangers of the NSA Surveillance Program
In this recent article, conservative columnist John Fund highlights some interesting comments by former Vice President Dick Cheney: On Sunday, former vice president Dick Cheney addressed the dilemma many conservatives face in assessing the revelations about the National Security Agency’s data collection. On the one hand, they are suspicious of the federal government. On the […]
Political Profiling and Racial Profiling
Slate columnist Farhad Manjoo has an interesting article arguing that conservatives are right to complain about the IRS’ use of political profiling, but argues that they should use the same reasoning to rethink their support for racial profiling in law enforcement. As he points out the IRS justification for political profiling is very similar to […]
Upcoming George Mason University Panel on the Tea Party and Voter Rationality
On Monday April 1, I will be speaking at a George Mason University School of Law panel on the Tea Party movement and voter rationality. Lots of data show that voters are often ignorant about politics and highly biased in their evaluation of the information they do know. The panel will focus on the extent […]
On Conservatives & Environmental Protection
Earlier this week I was interviewed by Brad Plumer of the Washington Post‘s Wonkblog about my ideas for “conservative” approaches to environmental protection (and my recent paper on the subject). The resulting article is here.
Judicial Nominations and Competing Constitutional “Mainstreams”
By Ilya Somin on March 19, 2013 8:15 pm in Conservatism, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Judicial Nominations
In a recent column, Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein argues that Republican senators who have filibustered some of Barack Obama’s judicial nominees are more to blame than Democrats who previously filibustered GOP nominees because the Democrats only tried to block nominees who were “out of the mainstream,” while the GOP targeted any nominees whom they […]
A “Conservative Vision” for the Future of Environmental Policy
Last fall, I participated in a conference at Duke Law School on “Conservative Visions of Our Environmental Future,” sponsored by the Duke Environmental Law and Policy Forum, Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, Nicholas School for the Environment, Duke Federalist Society, Duke College Republicans and the Energy & Enterprise Initiative. I blogged the event, summarizing […]
Ann Coulter vs. Young Libertarians on Stossel
Best line of the evening: “I don’t think you’re stoners… You’re nerds!”
Huntsman Endorses Gay Marriage
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman endorses gay marriage in The American Conservative. Here’s a bit of his argument: All Americans should be treated equally by the law, whether they marry in a church, another religious institution, or a town hall. This does not mean that any religious group would be forced by the state to […]
A Changing GOP Position on Immigration?
It was interesting to see that both Marco Rubio in his official Republican response to President Obama’s State of the Union and libertarian-leaning Senator Rand Paul in the Tea Party response argued for a less restrictive immigration policy. This is an important development for a party whose conservative wing has long been known for its […]