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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Territories Under Text, History, And Tradition, Andrew Willinger
The Territories Under Text, History, And Tradition, Andrew Willinger
Faculty Scholarship
In two of its major decisions in the 2021–2022 Term, New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the Court continued solidifying its originalist method of constitutional interpretation by looking increasingly to historical regulatory practice to construe how the Constitution protects individual rights. The Court is focused not only on the original public meaning of constitutional provisions, but also on historical practice. Historical laws and practices are now key to understanding how those who lived at the relevant time thought a constitutional provision might be applied and what regulatory approaches were consistent …
The Emergence Of The American Constitutional Law Tradition, H. Jefferson Powell
The Emergence Of The American Constitutional Law Tradition, H. Jefferson Powell
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Conflict And Sensitive Places, Darrell A. H. Miller
Constitutional Conflict And Sensitive Places, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Originalism And The Law Of The Past, William Baude, Stephen E. Sachs
Originalism And The Law Of The Past, William Baude, Stephen E. Sachs
Faculty Scholarship
Originalism has long been criticized for its “law office history” and other historical sins. But a recent “positive turn” in originalist thought may help make peace between history and law. On this theory, originalism is best understood as a claim about our modern law — which borrows many of its rules, constitutional or otherwise, from the law of the past. Our law happens to be the Founders’ law, unless lawfully changed.
This theory has three important implications for the role of history in law. First, whether and how past law matters today is a question of current law, not of …
Owning Heller, Darrell A. H. Miller
Owning Heller, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
Recent historical research using big-data techniques casts doubt on whether District of Columbia v. Heller was rightly decided according to originalist methods. These new discoveries put originalists in a bind. Do they embrace “faint hearted” originalism: the idea that as between the need for stability in prior decision making, settled expectations, and the coherence of the law, some adulterated decisions must remain enforced for the greater good? Or do they follow Justice Thomas’s reasoning in Gamble v. United States, remain stout-hearted, and reject any prior decision that cannot be supported by the common linguistic usage of the founding era – …
Second Amendment Traditionalism And Desuetude, Darrell A. H. Miller
Second Amendment Traditionalism And Desuetude, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Originalism’S Bite, William Baude, Stephen E. Sachs
Originalism’S Bite, William Baude, Stephen E. Sachs
Faculty Scholarship
Is originalism toothless? Richard Posner seems to think so. He writes that repeated theorizing by "intelligent originalists," one of us happily included, has rendered the theory "incoherent" and capable of supporting almost any result. We appreciate the attention, but we fear we've been misunderstood. Our view is that originalism permits arguments from precedent, changed circumstances, or whatever you like, but only to the extent that they lawfully derive from the law of the founding. This kind of originalism, surprisingly common in American legal practice, is catholic in theory but exacting in application. It might look tame, but it has bite.
Practice And Precedent In Historical Gloss Games, Joseph Blocher, Margaret H. Lemos
Practice And Precedent In Historical Gloss Games, Joseph Blocher, Margaret H. Lemos
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Agora: Reflections On Zivotofsky V. Kerry : Historical Gloss, The Recognition Power, And Judicial Review, Curtis A. Bradley
Agora: Reflections On Zivotofsky V. Kerry : Historical Gloss, The Recognition Power, And Judicial Review, Curtis A. Bradley
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Originalism As A Theory Of Legal Change, Stephen E. Sachs
Originalism As A Theory Of Legal Change, Stephen E. Sachs
Faculty Scholarship
Originalism is usually defended as a theory of interpretation. This Article presents a different view. Originalism ought to be defended, if at all, not based on normative goals or abstract philosophy, but as a positive theory of American legal practice, and particularly of our rules for legal change.
One basic assumption of legal systems is that the law, whatever it is, stays the same until it's lawfully changed. Originalism begins this process with an origin, a Founding. Whatever rules we had when the Constitution was adopted, we still have today -- unless something happened that was authorized to change …
Saving Originalism’S Soul, Stephen E. Sachs
The “Unwritten Constitution” And Unwritten Law, Stephen E. Sachs
The “Unwritten Constitution” And Unwritten Law, Stephen E. Sachs
Faculty Scholarship
America’s Unwritten Constitution is a prod to the profession to look for legal rules outside the Constitution’s text. This is a good thing, as outside the text there’s a vast amount of law—the everyday, nonconstitutional law, written and unwritten, that structures our government and society. Despite the book’s unorthodox framing, many of its claims can be reinterpreted in fully conventional legal terms, as the product of the text’s interaction with ordinary rules of law and language.
This very orthodoxy, though, may undermine Akhil Amar’s case that America truly has an “unwritten Constitution.” In seeking to harmonize the text with deep …
Interpretive Contestation And Legal Correctness, Matthew D. Adler
Interpretive Contestation And Legal Correctness, Matthew D. Adler
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Historical Gloss And The Separation Of Powers, Curtis A. Bradley, Trevor W. Morrison
Historical Gloss And The Separation Of Powers, Curtis A. Bradley, Trevor W. Morrison
Faculty Scholarship
Arguments based on historical practice are a mainstay of debates about the constitutional separation of powers. Surprisingly, however, there has been little sustained academic attention to the proper role of historical practice in this context. The scant existing scholarship is either limited to specific subject areas or focused primarily on judicial doctrine without addressing the use of historical practice in broader conceptual or theoretical terms. To the extent that the issue has been discussed, most accounts of how historical practice should inform the separation of powers require “acquiescence” by the branch of government whose prerogatives the practice implicates, something that …
The Conflicted Assumptions Of Modern Constitutional Law, H. Jefferson Powell
The Conflicted Assumptions Of Modern Constitutional Law, H. Jefferson Powell
Faculty Scholarship
Contribution to Symposium - The Nature of Judicial Authority: A Reflection on Philip Hamburger's Law and Judicial Duty
Guns As Smut: Defending The Home-Bound Second Amendment, Darrell A. H. Miller
Guns As Smut: Defending The Home-Bound Second Amendment, Darrell A. H. Miller
Faculty Scholarship
In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment guarantees a personal, individual right to keep and bear arms. But the Court left lower courts and legislatures adrift on the fundamental question of scope. While the Court stated in dicta that some regulation may survive constitutional scrutiny, it left the precise contours of the right, and even the method by which to determine those contours, for 'future evaluation."
This Article offers a provocative proposal for tackling the issue of Second Amendment scope, one tucked in many dresser drawers across the nation: Treat the Second Amendment …
Universal Rights And Wrongs, Michael E. Tigar
Universal Rights And Wrongs, Michael E. Tigar
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Popular Constitutionalism And The Rule Of Recognition: Whose Practices Ground U.S. Law?, Matthew D. Adler
Popular Constitutionalism And The Rule Of Recognition: Whose Practices Ground U.S. Law?, Matthew D. Adler
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Constitutional Design: Proposals Versus Processes, Donald L. Horowitz
Constitutional Design: Proposals Versus Processes, Donald L. Horowitz
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
A Graphic Review Of The Free Speech Clause, William W. Van Alstyne
A Graphic Review Of The Free Speech Clause, William W. Van Alstyne
Faculty Scholarship
This work acts as a spring board for the study of the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment. It builds useful graphical representations of complex constitutional theories from the ground up, allowing students to follow both development and the application of these theories.