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Full-Text Articles in Law
Moral Truth And Constitutional Conservatism, Gerard V. Bradley
Moral Truth And Constitutional Conservatism, Gerard V. Bradley
Journal Articles
Conservative constitutionalism is committed to "originalism," that is, to interpreting the Constitution according to its original public understanding. This defining commitment of constitutional interpretation is sound. For decades, however, constitutional conservatives have diluted it with a methodology of restraint, a normative approach to the judicial task marked by an overriding aversion to critical moral reasoning. In any event, the methodology eclipsed originalism and the partnership with moral truth that originalism actually entails. Conservative constitutionalism is presently a melange of mostly unsound arguments against the worst depredations of Casey's Mystery Passage.
The reason for the methodological moral reticence is easy to …
Windsor Beyond Marriage: Due Process, Equality & Undocumented Immigration, Anthony O'Rourke
Windsor Beyond Marriage: Due Process, Equality & Undocumented Immigration, Anthony O'Rourke
Journal Articles
The Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Windsor, invalidating part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, presents a significant interpretive challenge. Early commentators have criticized the majority opinion’s lack of analytical rigor, and expressed doubt that Windsor can serve as a meaningful precedent with respect to constitutional questions outside the area of same-sex marriage. This short Article offers a more rehabilitative reading of Windsor, and shows how the decision can be used to analyze a significant constitutional question concerning the use of state criminal procedure to regulate immigration.
From Windsor’s holding, the Article distills …