Tag Archives: law
Justice Don Willett’s Uncontroversial Commitment to the Constitution
The 1905 Supreme Court case Lochner v. New York has long been a lightning rod for the claim that unelected judges have no place in our Constitutional system striking down laws purporting to ensure public health and safety. The periled precedent played its part this week as UT Law student Noah Horwitz dutifully deployed it against […]
Intergovernmental Evidence-Sharing Isn’t Caring: Discussing a Return to General Warrants
Intergovernmental evidence-sharing ignores that the Warrant Clause does not empower the government to seize property merely to search for evidence and is therefore tantamount to a fishing expedition that converts the particularized warrants demanded by the Fourth Amendment into the very “general warrants” the provision was understood to prevent.
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 […]
The Weekly Bipartisan: Uniting Against Indefinite Detention
[Welcome to The Weekly Bipartisan, where we share instances of meaningful bipartisanship, on the Hill and elsewhere. This project seeks to shine a light on efforts to come together to find common ground and advance shared values in a political climate defined by polarization, an increasingly jaded citizenry, and vilification instead of constructive dialogue and debate. […]
GUEST POST: Charlie Eastaugh on Professional Consensus in 8th Amendment Interpretation
The following guest post is by a Twitter friend of the Least Dangerous Blog from across the pond, Charlie Eastaugh. Charlie is currently a Visiting Fellow at the University of Surrey (outside of London). Charlie graduated with a Ph.D. in U.S. Constitutional Law from the University of Surrey in 2016. The post contains some excerpts from […]
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, […]
Originalism Bootcamp at Georgetown’s Center for the Constitution
Georgetown Center for the Constitution’s Originalism Bootcamp is now accepting applications.
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 […]
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