Tag Archives: history
House Member Chaffetz Wants You To Buy Him A House
Retiring Congressman Jason Chaffetz announced, on his way out the door, that he believes Congress should provide themselves a $2,500 housing allowance, in order to better cope with the obnoxious cost of DC accommodations. Since congressmen maintain a residence in the District in addition to their household commitments back home, the logic goes, the excessive […]
Crying Havoc
Continuing the long tradition of hackneyed attempts to “make Shakespeare relevant,” Shakespeare in the Park this summer chose to stage its production of Julius Caesar with an eye towards current events. The conqueror of Gaul was therefore rendered with ginger hair and a red tie worn long enough to conceal ones manhood. Considering the probable […]
The Way of the Gun
“The mountains are high, and the Emperor is far away.” In the opening paragraphs of To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout ponders the meaning of her brother’s broken arm. “It began with Andrew Jackson,” she decides: “if General Jackson hadn’t run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama,” and […]
Imagine A Boot Stamping On A Human Face, Occasionally
George Orwell once pointed out that fascism, in contemporary usage, no longer held any meaning beyond “thing I do not like.” He published that essay in 1944. Matters have not improved much since. To clarify for the record: Fascism was a European movement of the 1920s and 1930s, particularly in Italy, in part in Spain. […]
The Privilege or Immunities Clause, Originalism, and Gender Equality
No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States . . . . U.S. Const., amend. XIV In 1873, in The Slaughter-House Cases and Bradwell v. Illinois, the Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to the idea that the Privileges or Immunities Clause of […]
The Dangers of Democracy: Human Rights and Majoritarianism
Introduction Last week, on December 15, we celebrated the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the Bill of Rights. While many Americans find good reason to celebrate the first ten amendments to the Constitution, not as many pause to appreciate that it is the amendments’ anti-democratic character that makes them so effective. Democracy, after all, […]
A Winter Reading List
I can happily say this whirlwind of a semester contained plenty of great reading. One of my classes, Recent Books on the Constitution, assigned a new book every other week – so it was a great way to keep up with interesting work. Despite my valiant efforts, new book releases outpaced my reading capabilities and continued to hit […]
Least Dangerous Blog 