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Full-Text Articles in Law
Philosopher King Courts: Is The Exercise Of Higher Law Authority Without A Higher Law Foundation Legitimate?, John C. Eastman
Philosopher King Courts: Is The Exercise Of Higher Law Authority Without A Higher Law Foundation Legitimate?, John C. Eastman
John C. Eastman
When our nation's Founders designed our constitutional system of government as the means to secure the inalienable rights described in the Declaration of Independence, they placed great stock in the structural provisions of the Constitution, even greater than in a judicially-enforceable bill of rights. Although they certainly envisioned judicial review, it is hard to fathom that they would have sanctioned a judiciary that decides every major (and a good number of the minor) political issue of the day. Even less clear is the ground of authority on which the modern-day court rests. This article considers several possible claims of legitimacy …
Politics And The Court: Did The Supreme Court Really Move Left Because Of Embarrassment Over Bush V. Gore?, John C. Eastman
Politics And The Court: Did The Supreme Court Really Move Left Because Of Embarrassment Over Bush V. Gore?, John C. Eastman
John C. Eastman
The premise of the "hot topics" panel at the 2005 AALS convention was that the Rehnquist Court had in 2004 retreated from its bolder conservatism, asserting itself on the side of individual liberty against a federal government that had grown increasingly cavalier toward civil liberties during three years of a war on terror and two decades of a renewed war on crime. Proof of the premise was said to be found in a pair of Sixth Amendment cases, Crawford v. Washington and Blakely v. Washington, and also in the trilogy of terrorism cases, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, and …
Judicial Review Of Unenumerated Rights: Does Marbury's Holding Apply In A Post-Warren Court World?, John C. Eastman
Judicial Review Of Unenumerated Rights: Does Marbury's Holding Apply In A Post-Warren Court World?, John C. Eastman
John C. Eastman
Prepared to commemmorate the bicentennial of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison, this article explores the limits of the original holding, its expansive interpretation in the 20th Century to claims of judicial supremacy, even exclusiveness, in constitutional interpretation, and the various theories that would support such claims. The article explores in some detail the particularly troubling claim of judicial power to create new, unenumerated rights when the Court itself has rejected the foundational, natural rights principles that would lend legitimacy to the enterprise.
Taking Justice Thomas Seriously, John Eastman
Taking Justice Thomas Seriously, John Eastman
John C. Eastman
Substantive Review of Scott Gerber's book, First Principles: The Jurisprudence of Clarence Thomas (New York University Press, 1999). This review praises Gerber's recognition that Justice Thomas has articulated a consistent and thoughtful original theory view of the Constitution, distinct from the original practice, most positivist view of constitutional interpretation advanced by Justice Antonin Scalia and the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. It also applauds the effort to take seriously Justice Thomas's jurisprudence, even while it takes Gerber to task for misunderstanding at times the full depth of that jurisprudence. Most notably, the article challenges Gerber's critique of Justice Thomas's Establishment …