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Anti-Anti-Evasion In Constitutional Law, Brannon P. Denning, Michael B. Kent Jr.
Anti-Anti-Evasion In Constitutional Law, Brannon P. Denning, Michael B. Kent Jr.
Brannon P. Denning
In a previous paper, we identified “anti-evasion doctrines” (AEDs) that the U.S. Supreme Court develops in various areas of constitutional law to prevent the circumvention of constitutional principles the Court has sought to enforce. Typically, the Court employs an AED – crafted as an ex post standard – to bolster or backstop a previously-designed decision rule – crafted as an ex ante rule – so as to prevent government officials from complying with the form of the prior rule while evading the constitutional substance the rule was designed to implement. Although AEDs present benefits and tradeoffs in constitutional doctrine, their …
The New Doctrinalism In Constitutional Scholarship And Heller V. District Of Columbia, Brannon P. Denning
The New Doctrinalism In Constitutional Scholarship And Heller V. District Of Columbia, Brannon P. Denning
Brannon P. Denning
This brief essay examines an apparent new trend in constitutional scholarship that focuses less on the fixing of constitutional meaning--the usual focus of constitutional theory--and more on the rules courts develop to implement constitutional commands. This new doctrinalism offers a way forward from the stalemated debates of constitutional theory, and perhaps can bridge the oft remarked upon divide between academics on the one hand, and judges and practitioners on the other. While the New Doctrinalism has already attracted critics who question whether interpretation and doctrine can meaningfully be separated, the essay concludes that its emergence is a welcome one in …