The Denver Post reports on the time that Chris Romer (current frontrunner in the Denver mayoral race) and I took a lonely stand in support of George McGovern’s doomed 1972 presidential campaign, during a classroom debate. As the article indicates, I have no regrets about doing whatever I could, including working as a phone bank […]
Archive | History
The “San Francisco Democrats” meme
These days, there are innumerable books and articles which will tell you that at the 1984 Republican Convention, “San Francisco Democrats” were denounced, and that the term was understood by everyone as an attack on homosexuals. This is at most only a partial truth. Suppose that in 2012, after the Republican Convention, a Democrat denounced the […]
Was the Fall of the USSR a Good Thing?
University of Chicago Professor Brian Leiter isn’t so sure, and gives his reasons: I should add, of course, that whether the collapse of the Soviet Union should be considered a good thing is a separate question. Certainly everyone (except the despots) welcomes the end of totalitarian regimes, though some of the former Soviet republics have […]
The Father of American Politics
James Madison is often referred to as the father of the American Constitution. In a WSJ op-ed, Richard Brookhiser suggests Madison should also be regarded as “the father of American politics as we know it.” His essay concludes: James Madison helped build a republic. He was also an ambitious party activist who counted votes, stumped, […]
Professor Of Military History Weighs in on the Implausibility of Bellesiles’s Story
The Chronicle of Higher Education has not yet revealed the results of its investigation of the veracity of Michael Bellesiles’s story about a dying soldier and his student brother. One can only speculate why it is taking more than a day or two to verify a story that should have been easy to verify (if […]
The Chronicle Review is Looking Into the June 27th Bellesiles Article
Late Monday afternoon, I received a one-sentence email from Liz McMillen, Editor of the Chronicle Review: I just wanted to let you know that we are looking into the questions you have raised in your blog post Friday about Michael Bellesiles’s article for us. Here is some background on Bellesiles’s June 27th article. Here is […]
What if I had been a law professor in 1935?
While this is certainly a question that no-one is asking, there is an answer. The latest episode of Colorado Inside-Out, from Colorado Public Television channel 12 in Denver, is our annual “time machine” program. This year’s show is set in 1935. I’m Westminster Law School bankruptcy professor Israel Ben Koplowitz. Patricia Calhoun (real-life publisher of […]
Federalist 46
By David Kopel on June 30, 2010 5:19 pm in Constitutional History, Federalism, Guns, History, Originalism
“The Influence of the State and Federal Governments Compared,” from the New York Packet, by James Madison. My essay thereon is here, at Constituting America’s series on The Federalist. Bottom line: even taking into account the many changes over the last two and quarter centuries, Madison was generally right.
The Bernardine Dohrn of the early 20th century: The terrorist professor at U of Texas law school
By David Kopel on May 24, 2010 3:56 pm in Academia, Congress, Constitutional History, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Criminal Law, Economic LIberties, Education, Guns, History, Law Schools, Legal Professor, Militia, Rehabilitating Lochner
My DU colleague Thomas Russell, who used to teach at the University of Texas Law school, has a written a paper, available on SSRN, which urges the University of Texas Law School to rename Simkins Hall, a law and graduate male student dormitory named for William Stewart Simkins. Simkins taught equity, contracts, procedure, and related topics at UT for […]
Freedom is not Enough: The Moynihan Report and America’s Struggle over Black Family Life–from LBJ to Obama
I interviewed Brown University history professor James T. Patterson about his book examining the tragic rise of illegitimacy rates, and the American political elite’s refusal to address the problem for decades. MP3, 50 minutes. During the course of our discussion, I mentioned my own writing about successful early intervention programs for at-risk children; that writing is […]
A reliable book about 1877
Eugene Volokh notes the forthcoming book from the audaciously fraudulent and inaccurate writer Michael Bellesiles, 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently. Because 1877, unlike gun ownership, is not currently a controversial topic in the United States, it is possible that nobody will track down Bellesiles’ footnotes to see if they support his claims. However, readers […]
Why “Washington, DC”?
Our nation’s capital is known as “Washington, DC.” But that name is kind of redundant, right? After all, “Washington” is the only thing in “DC.” So you can refer to “DC,” or you can refer to “Washington,” but they’re the same thing, at least as long as you make clear you’re not referring to Washington […]
The District of Potomac
I’d never heard of the federal district court for the District of Potomac until today, but it turns out there was such a court, albeit only briefly, in 1801-02. The District of Potomac included the territory of “Columbia” together with parts of Virginia and Maryland. The new district was set up by Section 21 of […]
The influence of French words in English legal terminology
Much more extensive and complex than you might think, even if you recognize “acquit” as derived from the Normans. Great podcast on the subject from Lingua Franca, a weekly Australian radio program on linguistics.
Philip Hamburger’s New SSRN Paper Provides Evidence Against Incorporation
By Jim Lindgren on February 26, 2010 1:50 pm in Constitutional History, Guns, History, Supreme Court
One of the issues in the McDonald gun rights case before the US Supreme Court is whether the Privileges or Immunities clause of the 14th Amendment was intended to incorporate the Second Amendment. In a new paper available on SSRN, historian Philip Hamburger argues that incorporation was not intended: What was meant by the Fourteenth […]