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Full-Text Articles in Rule of Law
Legal Obligations: The Proper Role Of White House Lawyers, William Michael Treanor
Legal Obligations: The Proper Role Of White House Lawyers, William Michael Treanor
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
An opinion issued on Aug. 1, 2002, by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel held that the federal statute that makes it a crime to commit torture outside the United States should not be read to “apply to the President’s detention and interrogation of enemy combatants pursuant to his Commander-in-Chief authority.” The opinion further concluded that if the statute did criminalize interrogations ordered by the president, it was unconstitutional.
The memorandum, which has become known as the “torture memo,” figures prominently in the ongoing public debate about whether there should be …
District Of Columbia V. Heller And Originalism, Lawrence B. Solum
District Of Columbia V. Heller And Originalism, Lawrence B. Solum
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
On June 26, 2008, the United States Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, striking a District of Columbia statute that prohibits the possession of useable handguns in the home on the ground that it violated the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Justice Scalia's majority opinion drew dissents from Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer. Collectively, the opinions in Heller represent the most important and extensive debate on the role of original meaning in constitutional interpretation among the members of the contemporary Supreme Court.
This article investigates the relationship between originalist constitutional …