Constitutional Law Commons^™

James Madison And Strict Constructionism, Drew Lemay

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

The United States Constitution has been a battleground between loose and strict constructionism since it was first ratified by the original thirteen colonies. To this day, the debate has continued to rage on across political groups. The question that remains to be answered is which method of interpretation did the Founding Fathers subscribe and intend to be utilized for the following generations. This essay seeks to partially answer that question by analyzing the view of one particular Founder: James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution.”

How The U.S. Supreme Court Is Inviting The Senate To Scrap The Filibuster, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

The Big Lie Is Undermining Our Democracy. Both Parties Need To Defeat It, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Sure, Things Seem Bad. But There Are Some Reasons To Be Cheerful In 2022, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

On Controlling The Supreme Court: Is There A Future For American Law?, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

This Earthly Frame: The Making Of American Secularism, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.”

Partisan Gerrymandering And The Right To Privacy, Ana Deckey

CMC Senior Theses

This paper argues that partisan gerrymanderers violate citizens’ right to privacy by using data containing sensitive information on citizens without a compelling state interest. It first details how partisan gerrymandering claims have been argued in Court in the past. Next, it discusses theories of the right to privacy, mainly exploring the tensions between James Madison’s writings on privacy and Warren and Brandeis’ famed The Right to Privacy. Then, I present originalist arguments for upholding the original meaning and principles of the right to privacy and the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments before walking through case law related to privacy and …

Why Secular Society Desperately Needs The Recognition Of Religious Holidays, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals.

How Should The Law Adjust To The Rittenhouse Verdict?, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Stop Calling Kyle Rittenhouse A Hero. He Killed Two Unarmed People, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Autonomous Corporate Personhood, Carla L. Reyes

Washington Law Review

Several states have recently changed their business organization law to accommodate autonomous businesses—businesses operated entirely through computer code. A variety of international civil society groups are also actively developing new frameworks— and a model law—for enabling decentralized, autonomous businesses to achieve a corporate or corporate-like status that bestows legal personhood. Meanwhile, various jurisdictions, including the European Union, have considered whether and to what extent artificial intelligence (AI) more broadly should be endowed with personhood to respond to AI’s increasing presence in society. Despite the fairly obvious overlap between the two sets of inquiries, the legal and policy discussions between the …

Maybe Deficits Do Matter After All, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

No, This Isn’T Facebook’S ‘Big Tobacco’ Moment, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

November 1, 2021: The Migration Of New Content To Bruceledewitz.Com, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Migration of New Content to bruceledewitz.com“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Here's What's At Stake In Texas Abortion Case Before U.S. Supreme Court, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

Judicial Populism, Anya Bernstein, Glen Staszewski

Faculty Scholarship

Discussions of populism generally focus on politics. This Article identifies a related phenomenon in law. Judicial populism uses political populism’s tropes, mirrors its traits, and enables its practices. Like political populism, judicial populism insists that there are clear, correct answers to complex, debatable problems. It disparages the mediation and negotiation that characterize democratic institutions and rejects the messiness inherent in a pluralistic democracy. Instead, it simplifies the issues legal institutions address and claims special access to a true, single meaning of the law.

In this image, there is no room for legitimate disagreement. Writers in this vein often accuse those …

The The Universe Is On Our Side: Restoring Faith In American Public Life, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Books

In The Universe Is On Our Side, Bruce Ledewitz argues that there has been a breakdown in American public life that no election can fix - Americans struggle to even converse about politics and the usual explanations for our condition have failed to make things better. Ledewitz posits that America is living with the consequences of the Death of God, which Friedrich Nietzsche presumed would be momentous and irreversible.For a long time, God acted as the story of the meaning of our lives. America's future requires that we begin a new story by each of us asking a question posed …

No, Joe Biden And The Dems Are Not Collapsing, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

October 13, 2021: The Case For Joe Biden, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Case for Joe Biden“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 8, 2021: Tune In To The Grimes Lecture I Delivered Yesterday At Bethany College, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Tune in to the Grimes Lecture I Delivered Yesterday at Bethany College“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

October 3, 2021: A Response To My Column Criticizing The National Vote Compact--What Ledewitz Missed, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “A Response to My Column Criticizing the National Vote Compact--What Ledewitz Missed“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

What Is "United" About The United States?, Gary S. Lawson

Faculty Scholarship

Jack Balkin’s The Cycles of Constitutional Time aims, among other things, to preserve and promote what Jack regards as “democracy and republicanism,” understood as “a joint enterprise by citizens and their representatives to pursue and promote the public good.” My question is whether and how this normative project is possible in a world full of perceptions of social, political, and moral phenomena akin to the white dress/blue dress internet controversy of 2015. Even if Madison had the better of Montesquieu in 1788 (and that is questionable), the United States has grown dramatically since the founding era, in a patchwork, and …

The 2021 Race For Pa. Supreme Court: The Questions The Candidates Have To Answer, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

September 28, 2021: The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Race--I Don't Trust The Democrats And I Am Afraid Of The Republicans, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Race--I don't trust the Democrats and I am afraid of the Republicans“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 20, 2021: Two Recent Columns--The Texas Anti-Abortion Statute And Justice Wecht And The Death Of God, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Two Recent Columns--the Texas Anti-Abortion statute and Justice Wecht and the Death of God“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 2, 2021: The Steal In The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “The steal in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

September 16, 2021: Forgiveness, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Forgiveness“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.

Did Pa. Supreme Court Justice David Wecht Herald The Death Of God?, Bruce Ledewitz

Newspaper Columns

Collected biweekly contributions to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news site.

I Am Resigning From The Pro-Life Movement, Bruce Ledewitz

Ledewitz Papers

Published scholarship collected from academic journals, law reviews, newspaper publications & online periodicals

September 11, 2021: Twenty Years Later, 9/11 Is Finally Over, Bruce Ledewitz

Hallowed Secularism

Blog post, “Twenty Years Later, 9/11 is finally over“ discusses politics, theology and the law in relation to religion and public life in the democratic United States of America.