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A Grievance Based Interpretation Of The Thirteenth Amendment, Lea Vandervelde
A Grievance Based Interpretation Of The Thirteenth Amendment, Lea Vandervelde
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A Modest Appeal For Decent Respect, Jessica Olive, David C. Gray
A Modest Appeal For Decent Respect, Jessica Olive, David C. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
In Graham v. Florida, the Supreme Court held that the Eighth Amendment prohibits imposing a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release for nonhomicide crimes if the perpetrator was under the age of eighteen at the time of his offense. In so holding, Justice Kennedy cited foreign and international law to confirm the Court’s independent judgment. In his dissent, Justice Thomas recited now-familiar objections to the Court’s reliance on these sources. Those objections are grounded in his originalist jurisprudence. In this short invited essay, which expands on prior work, we argue that Justice Thomas should abandon these …
Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativist ... Sometimes, David C. Gray
Why Justice Scalia Should Be A Constitutional Comparativist ... Sometimes, David C. Gray
Faculty Scholarship
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 …