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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Agency Law Origins Of The Necessary And Proper Clause, Robert G. Natelson
The Agency Law Origins Of The Necessary And Proper Clause, Robert G. Natelson
Robert G. Natelson
This is the first of several writings by the author on the original meaning of the Constitution's Necessary and Proper Clause. It explains part of the legal background of the Clause, identifies it as a recital (not an independent grant of power) of the 18th century doctrine of incidental powers, and explains the content of that doctrine. The article has since been updated and supplemented by the author's signed chapters in Lawson, Miller, Natelson & Seidman, The Origins of the Necessary and Proper Clause (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010).
The General Welfare Clause And The Public Trust: An Essay In Original Understanding, Robert G. Natelson
The General Welfare Clause And The Public Trust: An Essay In Original Understanding, Robert G. Natelson
Robert G. Natelson
This article explains the original meaning/understanding of the Constitution's General Welfare Clause, including the scope of the taxing and spending power granted to Congress
Madisonian Equal Protection, James S. Liebman, Brandon L. Garrett
Madisonian Equal Protection, James S. Liebman, Brandon L. Garrett
Faculty Scholarship
James Madison is considered the "Father of the Constitution," but his progeny disappointed him. It had no effective defense against self-government's "mortal disease" – the oppression of minorities by local majorities. This Article explores Madison's writings in an effort to reclaim the deep conception of equal protection at the core of his constitutional aspirations. At the Convention, Madison passionately advocated a radical structural approach to equal protection under which the "extended republic's" broadly focused legislature would have monitored local laws and vetoed those that were parochial and "unjust." Rejecting this proposal to structure equal protection into the "interior" operation of …
The Proper Scope Of The Police Power, Randy E. Barnett
The Proper Scope Of The Police Power, Randy E. Barnett
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
In this Article, I will contend that the Constitution is not really silent at all on the proper scope of state powers; that the original meaning of what the Constitution says requires that state powers over their citizens have fairly easy to identify limits - though as with most constitutional provisions, applying these limits to particular cases requires judgment and is not a matter of strict deductive logic. This account will require me to briefly review the method of interpretation I advocate - original meaning originalism-and its limits. These limits require that interpretation of original meaning be implemented by means …