Law Commons^™

A New Look At The Original Meaning Of The Diversity Clause, Mark K. Moller

Mark Moller

An Originalist Theory Of Precedent: The Epistemic And Metaphysical Attitudes Toward Originalist Precedent, Lee Strang

Lee J Strang

No abstract provided.

Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativist ... Sometimes, David Gray

David C. Gray

The burgeoning literature on transjudicialism and constitutional comparativism generally reaffirms the familiar lines of contest between textualists and those more inclined to read the Constitution as a living document. As a consequence, it tends to be politicized, if not polemic. This article begins to shift the debate toward a more rigorous focus on first principles. In particular, it argues that full faith to the basic commitments of originalism, as advanced in Justice Scalia's writings, opinions, and speeches, requires domestic courts to consult contemporary foreign sources when interpreting universalist language found in the Constitution. While the article does not propose a …

The Original Understandings Of The Capture Clause, Aaron D. Simowitz

Aaron D. Simowitz

The Congress shall have power to . . . To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water. US Const Art I, § 8, cl 11.

Although the Capture Clause may seem obscure today, the power it embodies was crucially important to the early republic. General Washington declared, even during the Revolutionary War, that a centralized and standardized system for the handling of prizes was vital to the war effort. The first court established by the fledging federal government was the federal appellate court of prize. This court heard over a …

Taking History Seriously: Textulism,Originalim, And The Ninh Amndment, Thomas B. Mcaffee

Thomas B. McAffee

Dean William Trenor critques constitutional txtualism,contending that it pays too much attention to the words,gramma, and placement of clauses in the Constitution, and too litte to the history leding to the adoption of the interpreted language. An illusration is Amar's treatment of the Ninth Amendment in his book on the Bill of Rights. This treatment agrees that history sheds light on meaning,butcontends that the Ninth Amendent was drafted to secure right retained by granting limied power. The modern debate, moreover, is over how to intepret a postvist Constitution.

Gilbert & Sullivan And Scalia: Philosophy, Proportionality And The Eighth Amendment, Ian P. Farrell

Ian P Farrell

As the recent decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana demonstrates, the principle of proportionality – that the punishment should fit the crime – remains a vital component of the Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. Justice Scalia, however, holds the view that the Cruel and Unusual Punishment clause contains no requirement of proportionality. The keystone of Justice Scalia’s faint-hearted originalist argument in support of this position is a philosophical claim: that the proportionality principle is an inherently retributivist concept that is incompatible with consequentialist goals of punishment. An analysis of the various theories of punishment, and in particular retributivism and consequentialism, shows …

Judicial Dissonance: An Analysis Of Judicial Activism, Matthew P. Cohen

Matthew P. Cohen

This comment will examine the debate over judicial activism with a particular focus on commentary spawned from the recent U.S. Supreme Court and California Supreme Court decisions, as well as Bush v. Gore . First, to lay the foundation of the comment, judicial impartiality and independence will be examined. This will bring to light the controlling norms of how judges are to ideally conduct themselves and render opinions in order to maintain public confidence in the judicial system. This comment will then discuss judicial activism and its history within jurisprudence. Transitioning from the history of judicial activism to a more …

The Myth Of The Written Constitution, Todd E. Pettys

Todd E. Pettys

Many Americans have long subscribed to what this Article calls the myth of the written constitution—the claim that the nation’s Constitution consists entirely of those texts that the sovereign American people have formally ratified, and the claim that the will of the American people, as expressed in those ratified texts, determines the way in which properly behaving judges resolve constitutional disputes. Drawing on two different meanings of the term myth, this Article contends that neither of those claims is literally true, but that Americans’ attachment to those claims serves at least three crucial functions. Subscribing to the myth helps to …

Whether Foreigner Or Alien: A New Look At The Original Language Of The Alien Tort Statute, M. Anderson Berry

M. Anderson Berry

Until now, the word that puts the ‘A’ in ATS has been completely overlooked. No court or commentator has delved in to the 1789 meaning of “alien,” or to the drafters' understanding of and possible intentions behind that word.

In the Supreme Court’s only opinion regarding the Alien Tort Statute, Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain, the Court unanimously agreed that although the first House of Representatives modified the Senate’s draft of what eventually became the Judiciary Act of 1789, it made hardly any changes to the provisions on aliens, including what became the ATS. The Court did not point out any of …

A Concise Guide To The Records Of The State Ratifying Conventions As A Source Of The Original Meaning Of The U.S. Constitution, Gregory E. Maggs

Gregory E. Maggs

This article was published by the University of Illinois Law Review in 2009. The citation is: Gregory E. Maggs, A Concise Guide to the Records of the State Ratifying Conventions as a Source of the Original Meaning of the U.S. Constitution, 2009 U. Ill. L. Rev. 457.

Starting in the fall of 1787, legislatures in the original thirteen states called for conventions for the purpose of deciding whether to ratify the U.S. Constitution. Many of the records of these state ratifying conventions have survived. The records reveal some of what the delegates at the state conventions said during their debates …

Medellin And Originalism, D. A. Jeremy Telman

D. A. Jeremy Telman

In Medellín v. Texas, the Supreme Court permitted Texas to proceed with the execution of a Mexican national who had not been given timely notice of his right of consular notification and consultation in violation of the United States’ obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. It did so despite its finding that the United States had an obligation under treaty law to comply with an order of the International Court of Justice that Medellín’s case be granted review and reconsideration. The international obligation, the Court found, was not domestically enforceable because the treaties at issue were not self-executing. …

The New Originalism Meets The Fourteenth Amendment: Original Public Meaning And The Problem Of Incorporation, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

This paper, prepared for a symposium on the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment at the University of San Diego's Institute for Constitutional Originalism, examines the historical case for incorporation within the Fourteenth Amendment of the rights in first eight amendments to the Constitution in light of the recent turn in thinking about originalist methods of constitutional interpretation. In recent decades, the historical case for incorporation has made something of a comeback, resting on strong evidence that many of the key framers of the Fourteenth Amendment considered the first eight amendments to be among the privileges and immunities of …