Constitutional Law Commons^™

Reconstructing Liberty, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is commonly and rightly understood in this country that our constitutional system ensures, or seeks to ensure, that individuals are accorded the greatest degree of personal, political, social, and economic liberty possible, consistent with a like amount of liberty given to others, the duty and right of the community to establish the conditions for a moral and secure collective life, and the responsibility of the state to provide for the common defense of the community against outside aggression. Our distinctive cultural and constitutional commitment to individual liberty places very real restraints on what our elected representatives can do, even …

The Ideal Of Liberty: A Comment On Michael H. V. Gerald D., Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What is the meaning and content of the "liberty" protected by the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment? In Michael H. v. Gerald D. Justices Brennan and Scalia spelled out what at first blush appear to be sharply contrasting understandings of the meaning of liberty and of the substantive limits liberty imposes on state action. Justice Scalia argued that the "liberty" protected by a substantive interpretation of due process is only the liberty to engage in activities historically protected against state intervention by firmly entrenched societal traditions. I will sometimes call this the "traditionalist" interpretation of liberty. Justice Brennan, …

Toward An Abolitionist Interpretation Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

It is by now an open secret that current interpretations of the meaning of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and of its relevance and mandate for contemporary problems of racial, gender, and economic justice, are deeply and, in a sense, hopelessly conflicted. The conflict, simply stated, is this: to the current Supreme Court, and to a sizeable and influential number of constitutional theorists, the "equal protection of the laws" guaranteed by the Constitution is essentially a guarantee that the categories delineated by legal rules will be "rational" and will be rationally related to legitimate state ends. To …

Unenumerated Constitutional Rights And The Rule Of Law, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The rule of law has long been one of the mainstays of liberal thought. John Locke cited its absence--not the absence of rights, which Locke thought existed in the state of nature--as the first reason for forming a government. Essentially, the rule of law says that the requirements of justice must take a form such that persons can know what justice requires of them before they act and can detect abuses by those charged with law enforcement. If the formal and procedural requirements of the rule of law are adhered to, those "good" persons who seek to act properly can …

Progressive And Conservative Constitutionalism, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

American constitutional law in general, and fourteenth amendment jurisprudence in particular, is in a state of profound transformation. The "liberal-legalist" and purportedly politically neutral understanding of constitutional guarantees that dominated constitutional law and theory during the fifties, sixties, and seventies, is waning, both in the courts and in the academy. What is beginning to replace liberal legalism in the academy, and what has clearly replaced it on the Supreme Court, is a very different conception - a new paradigm - of the role of constitutionalism, constitutional adjudication, and constitutional guarantees in a democratic state. Unlike the liberal-legal paradigm it is …

The Meaning Of Equality And The Interpretive Turn, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The turn to hermeneutics and interpretation in contemporary legal theory has contributed at least two central ideas to modern jurisprudential thought: first, that the "meaning" of a text is invariably indeterminate -- what might be called the indeterminacy claim -- and second, that the unavoidably malleable essence of texts -- their essential inessentiality -- entails that interpreting a text is a necessary part of the process of creating the text's meaning. These insights have generated both considerable angst, and considerable excitement among traditional constitutional scholars, primarily because at least on first blush these two claims seem to inescapably imply a …

Equality Theory, Marital Rape, And The Promise Of The Fourteenth Amendment, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

During the 1980s a handful of state judges either held or opined in dicta what must be incontrovertible to the feminist community, as well as to most progressive legal advocates and academics: the so-called marital rape exemption, whether statutory or common law in origin, constitutes a denial of a married woman's constitutional right to equal protection under the law. Indeed, a more obvious denial of equal protection is difficult to imagine: the marital rape exemption denies married women protection against violent crime solely on the basis of gender and marital status. What possibly could be less rational than a statute …

Virtues And Voices, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This essay explores two ideas that have recently played an important role in discourse about the American constitutional order. The first idea has emerged from the revival of civic republicanism. The republican revival has focused our attention on the classical conception of civic virtue. Our basic social arrangements ought to nourish a citizenry with the characteristics of mind and will that promote human flourishing. The second idea, expressed in critical race theory and feminist jurisprudence, is that we have an obligation as a society and as scholars to attend to excluded voices. The juxtaposition of these two themes offers an …

The Internal And External Analysis Of Concepts, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In Abstract Right and the Possibility of a Nondistributive Conception of Contract: Hegel and Contemporary Contract Theory, Peter Benson criticizes the authors presentation of a consent theory of contract, in part, on the ground that it "refers only to the empirical facts of the requirements of human needs and fulfillment. Like [Charles] Fried's [account], his conception of the consensual basis of a contract does not preserve the required standpoint of abstraction. " On this basis Professor Benson concludes that the author's approach fails to "provide an adequate elucidation of a nondistributive conception of contract.

By explaining contractual obligation …

The Future Of District Of Columbia Home Rule, Philip G. Schrag

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article begins by briefly reviewing the recent historical development of home rule. Next, it explores the ways in which the people of the District might obtain a greater voice in the national legislature and more genuine home rule. Finally, it suggests that the District's citizens may have to make a political choice, which they have until now avoided, between seeking gradual improvements in their political rights and pressing strongly for statehood.

The Virtues Of Redundancy In Legal Thought, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Redundancy has a bad reputation among legal intellectuals. When someone says, for example, that the ninth and tenth amendments are redundant, we can be pretty sure that this person attaches little importance to these constitutional provisions. Listen to one of the definitions of redundant provided by the Oxford English Dictionary: "superabundant, superfluous, excessive."' In this essay, the author proposes that legal theorists pay serious attention to the concept of redundancy used by engineers. He explains how redundancy--in this special sense--is essential to any intellectual enterprise in which we try to reach action-guiding conclusions, including the enterprise of law. The author …

A ‘Non-Power’ Looks At Separation Of Powers, Alan B. Morrison, Georgetown University Law Center

Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture

On April 6, 1989, Dean, Alan B. Morrison of George Washington Law, delivered the Georgetown Law Center’s ninth Annual Philip A. Hart Memorial Lecture: "A ‘Non-Power’ Looks at Separation of Powers."

Dean Morrison is the Lerner Family Associate Dean for Public Interest & Public Service at GW Law. He is responsible for creating pro bono opportunities for students, bringing a wide range of public interest programs to the law school, encouraging students to seek positions in the non-profit and government sectors, and assisting students find ways to fund their legal education to make it possible for them to pursue careers …

Two Conceptions Of The Ninth Amendment, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Ninth Amendment has been largely ignored by the Supreme Court of the United States. Because the Ninth Amendment is unquestionably a part of our written Constitution, ignoring it would not have been possible without some theory that renders it without any function. This paper will first examine this theory, which is based on what the author calls the "rights-powers conception" of constitutional rights, a conception of constitutional rights that is applied only to the Ninth Amendment. Then he describes an alternative to this view of the Ninth Amendment, one that is based on what I call the "power-constraint conception" …

The Fifth Amendment: If An Aid To The Guilty Defendant, An Impediment To The Innocent One, Peter W. Tague

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The fifth amendment's privilege not to answer, critics carp, insulates the guilty defendant from revealing his complicity. While this is true, ironically it also can shackle the innocent defendant from attempting to prove that another person committed the crime. If that other person asserts the fifth amendment in response to questions designed to substitute him for the defendant, the innocent defendant can neither surmount that person's assertion nor benefit therefrom.

Consider this set of facts. A murder is committed. Defendant, charged with the crime, has evidence that Witness killed the victim. The prosecution believes only one person committed the crime. …

Constitutional Bait And Switch: Executive Reinterpretation Of Arms Control Treaties, David A. Koplow

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A new constitutional crisis has been thrust upon the American body politic. The crisis arises from a dispute concerning the allocation of legal authority for the interpretation, and especially for the reinterpretation, of international agreements. Once a sleepy backwater reserved for specialized scholars, the issue of treaty interpretation has drawn the President and Congress into stark confrontation and generated splashy headlines.

Originalism As Transformative Politics, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

One might easily paint a picture in which the central question debated in constitutional jurisprudence in recent years was whether originalism is the correct theory of constitutional interpretation. This portrait of a constitutional debate could be quite dramatic. Prominent among the figures on the originalist side stand former Judge Robert Bork, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, former Attorney General Edwin Meese, and scholar Raoul Berger. Their opponents, the nonoriginalists, include Senator Joseph Biden, Associate Justice William Brennan, and a host of constitutional scholars. The stakes of the debate seem high: will the legacy of the Warren Court be dismantled by the …

Faith And Justice, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

What is the relationship between faith and justice? In particular, this Article will address the question of what a Justice of the United States Supreme Court should do, when her religious faith suggests that a case should be resolved in a way that is either inconsistent with the law or not justified by nonreligious, public reasons. May she rely on her religious beliefs to resolve a hard case? May she write an opinion that uses religious grounds to justify her decision?

In this Article, I will undertake to elaborate and defend a distinctively liberal position concerning faith and justice. My …

Two Conceptions Of The Ninth Amendment, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Ninth Amendment has been largely ignored by the Supreme Court of the United States. Because the Ninth Amendment is unquestionably a part of our written Constitution, ignoring it would not have been possible without some theory that renders it without any function. This paper will first examine this theory, which is based on what I call the "rightspowers conception" of constitutional rights, a conception of constitutional rights that is applied only to the Ninth Amendment. Then I will describe an alternative to this view of the Ninth Amendment, one that is based on what I call the "powerconstraint conception" …

Law, Literature, And The Celebration Of Authority, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Richard Posner's new book, Law and Literature: A Misunderstood Relation, is a defense of “liberal legalism” against a group of modern critics who have only one thing in common: their use of either particular pieces of literature or literary theory to mount legal critiques. Perhaps for that reason, it is very hard to discern a unified thesis within Posner's book regarding the relationship between law and literature. In part, Posner is complaining about a pollution of literature by its use and abuse in political and legal argument; thus, the “misunderstood relation” to which the title refers. At times, Posner suggests …

The Early Role Of The Attorney General In Our Constitutional Scheme: In The Beginning There Was Pragmatism, Susan Low Bloch

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article attempts to accomplish two distinct but related objectives. First, it initiates the proposed systematic study of the Office of the Attorney General by examining its early role. Second, it explores how these early experiences help to answer today's questions. To those ends, part I examines the establishment of the Office of the Attorney General. Studying the genesis of the office and contrasting it to the other significant offices created by the First Congress, such as the Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, War, and Treasury, reveals the priorities and concerns of these early legislators, many of whom had been instrumental …

Section 1983 And Constitutional Torts, Charles F. Abernathy

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

We have long recognized that the resurrection of section 1983 converted the fourteenth amendment from a shield into a sword by providing a civil action for vindication of constitutional rights and, to the extent that damages have gradually become the authorized remedy for section 1983 violations, we have easily come to think of such actions as constitutional torts-civil damage remedies for violations of constitutionally defined rights. There is, however, a subtler and greater reality to what has transpired, for the mere procedural vehicle of constitutional enforcement has, in retrospect, changed the substance of constitutional law itself. Section 1983 has not …

Of Chickens And Eggs−−The Compatibility Of Moral Rights And Consequentialist Analyses, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Philosophers are accustomed to thinking of moral rights and consequentialist analyses as fundamentally incompatible. They frequently debate cases--both hypothetical and real--in which rights and consequences are in conflict. For example, suppose an innocent child knows the whereabouts of a terrorist who has planted a nuclear bomb in a city. Would it be permissible to violate the child's moral right to be free from torture, if this was the only way to save millions of innocent lives? If this is permissible, then do not moral rights yield to concerns about consequences? Or suppose that a community incorrectly believes that an innocent …

Reconceiving The Ninth Amendment, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The courts long have protected constitutional rights that are not listed explicitly in the Constitution, but are they warranted in doing so? As scholars and commentators vigorously debate this and other questions about the appropriate role of judges in interpreting the Constitution, the Ninth Amendment has assumed increasing importance. Its declaration that "[t]he enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people" has suggested to many that the set of rights protected by the Constitution is not dosed and that judges may be authorized to protect these "unenumerated" rights …

Communities, Texts, And Law: Reflections On The Law And Literature Movement, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

How do we form communities? How might we form better ones? What is the role of law in that process? In a recent series of books and articles, James Boyd White, arguably the modern law and literature movement's founder, has put forward distinctively literary answers to these questions. Perhaps because of the fluidity of the humanities, White's account of the nature of community is not nearly as axiomatic to the law and literature movement as is Posner's depiction of the "individual" to legal economists. Nevertheless, White's conception is increasingly representative of the literary-legalist's world view. Furthermore, with the exception of …

The Ninth Amendment And Constitutional Legitimacy: Foreword To The "Symposium On Interpreting The Ninth Amendment", Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Does the Constitution of the United States of America impart legitimacy on legislation enacted under its auspices? If so, how? Is a citizen bound in conscience to obey such legislation? If so, why? Does legislation create a duty of obedience simply because it was enacted by a group of persons calling themselves a "legislature," or is there some other reason? Would any constitution impart such legitimacy or is there something special about the character of those that do? If the latter, does the United States Constitution have the requisite character?

While I shall not definitively answer these questions in this …

Taking The Framers Seriously, William Michael Treanor

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article reviews Taking the Constitution Seriously by Walter Berns (1987).

This review focuses on three of the key historical points that Walter Berns makes: his arguments that the Declaration of Independence is a Lockean document; that the Constitution encapsulates the political philosophy of the Declaration; and that the framers viewed the commercialization of society as a salutary development and were unambivalent champions of the right to property. Examination of these issues suggests that the ideological universe of the framers was far more complex than Berns indicates. While the revolutionary era witnessed a new concern with individual rights and a …

The Authoritarian Impulse In Constitutional Law, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Should there be greater participation by legislators and citizens in constitutional debate, theory, and decision-making? An increasing number of legal theorists from otherwise divergent perspectives have recently argued against what Paul Brest calls the "principle of judicial exclusivity" in our constitutional processes. These theorists contend that because issues of public morality in our culture either are, or tend to become, constitutional issues, all political actors, and most notably legislators and citizens, should consider the constitutional implications of the moral issues of the day. Because constitutional questions are essentially moral questions about how active and responsible citizens should constitute themselves, we …

A Civil Liberties Analysis Of Surrogacy Arrangements, Lawrence O. Gostin

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In this essay the author comes to the following conclusions based upon a civil liberties analysis. First, surrogacy arrangements cannot be prohibited or criminalized. Second, the state cannot ban the exchange of money for surrogacy services, provided the money is paid for conception, gestation, and birth. Money, however, cannot be paid on condition that the gestational mother waive her parental rights over the child. Third, contractual provisions that require the gestational mother to waive her parental rights or her rights to privacy and autonomy are void and unenforceable. Fourth, when the child is born, both the gestational mother and the …

Re Enumerated Constitutional Rights The Only Rights We Have? The Case Of Associational Freedom, Randy E. Barnett

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Much of contemporary constitutional thought assumes that the only rights individuals have are either those that they are given by the legislature or those that are explicitly specified in the Constitution of the United States (or in a state constitution). Such a view of rights is based on the jurisprudential philosophy known as legal positivism, a view that has dominated academic discussions about legal rights for at least fifty years and that has begun to wane only in the last fifteen years.' In this Paper, I will try to explain how adherence to this legal positivism taints and distorts constitutional …

Adjudication Is Not Interpretation: Some Reservations About The Law-As-Literature Movement, Robin West

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Among other achievements, the modern law-as-literature movement has prompted increasing numbers of legal scholars to embrace the claim that adjudication is interpretation, and more specifically, that constitutional adjudication is interpretation of the Constitution. That adjudication is interpretation -- that an adjudicative act is an interpretive act -- more than any other central commitment, unifies the otherwise diverse strands of the legal and constitutional theory of the late twentieth century.

In this article, I will argue in this article against both modern forms of interpretivism. The analogue of law to literature, on which much of modern interpretivism is based, although fruitful, …