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Devin Watkins Subscribe

Devin Watkins is an attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a free market public policy organization based in Washington, D.C.

March 26, 2019|Constitution, Kurt Lash, Originalism, Privileges or Immunities Clause, unenumerated rights

The Unenumerated Rights of the Privileges or Immunities Clause

by Devin Watkins|

Draft of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution (Everett Historical/Shutterstock.com)
Perhaps a better constitution would be what Lash proposes, with less opportunity for mischief by judges, but that is not the Constitution we have.

July 17, 2018|

Is Robert Mueller an Officer of the United States?

by Devin Watkins|

Department of Justice Headquarters, Washington, D.C. (Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com).
Robert Mueller's authority hinges on whether he has been issued a commission from the President, and if he has, the President can remove him.

January 18, 2018|Alien and Sedition Acts, civil rights, Constitution, Fugitive Slave Act, George v. Brailsford, John Jay, Jury Nullification, Mark Pulliam, Natural Law, William Penn

Juries Judge the Law As Well

by Devin Watkins|

No doubt that it is the duty of judges to say what they believe the law is, but that does not mean they are the only ones - juries have their role to play.

November 21, 2016|Bonham's Case, Common Law, Due Process Clause, Edward Coke, Hoke v. Henderson, Justice Clarence Thomas, Liberty, Liberty of the Subject Act, Obergefell v. Hodges, William Blackstone

Defining Liberty Properly

by Devin Watkins|

On the Originalism blog, Michael Ramsey and Andrew Hyman responded to my post for Law and Liberty on the original understanding of substantive due process. Hyman disputes the definition of “liberty” I provided and asserts a different definition of “due process of law” in the Fifth Amendment, while Ramsey asks for more evidence that the definition of “liberty” given wasn’t unique to Thomas Jefferson.

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October 25, 2016|Apostolica Sedis Moderationi, Equal Protection, Fourteenth Amendment, Obergefell v. Hodges, Originalism, Roe v. Wade, Substantive Due Process

The Original Understanding of Substantive Due Process

by Devin Watkins|

The modern conservative legal movement grew up in response to the Warren Court’s activism in the 1960s. In opposing the decisions of Justice Brennan and the rest, conservatives made use of the same arguments that liberals had used during the New Deal, when the Supreme Court had a conservative majority resistant to the Roosevelt program. In essence, the conservatives during the Warren years called liberals hypocrites for not deferring to the legislature, since deference was the claimed reason for the 1937 overturning of Lochner v. New York (1905). When the conservatives finally did get a majority on the Court in the 1980s, it was under a Republican president, and deference to the Reagan administration made a lot of sense for conservatives.

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September 21, 2016|Civil Law, Common Law, judicial engagement, Judicial Oath, Mark Pulliam, Williams v. Pennsylvania

Engagement Doesn’t Mean Limitless Power

by Devin Watkins|

In a recent post on Law and Liberty, Mark Pulliam lambasted the idea of a more “rigorous standard of judicial review, across the board, when laws are challenged” called “judicial engagement.” He claims that those of us who advocate judicial engagement presume that judges are untainted by bias or personal predilections whereas they “are just government officials who wear robes, no different (and certainly no more noble or wise) than any other functionary of the state.”

Judicial engagement does not make any such presumption. Judges are no different from any other people. But the office of a judge is different. A judge has different incentives than a legislator because of the nature of his or her office, which renders him or her less vulnerable to manipulation by interest groups or political pressure.

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Book Reviews

A Mirror of the 20th-Century Congress

by Joseph Postell

Wright undermined the very basis of his local popularity—the decentralized nature of the House—by supporting reforms that gave power to the party leaders.

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The Graces of Flannery O'Connor

by Henry T. Edmondson III

O'Connor's correspondence is a goldmine of piercing insight and startling reflections on everything from literature to philosophy to raising peacocks.

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Liberty Classics

Rereading Politica in the Post-Liberal Moment

by Glenn A. Moots

Althusius offers a rich constitutionalism that empowers persons to thrive alongside one another in deliberate communities.

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James Fenimore Cooper and the American Experiment

by Melissa Matthes

In The American Democrat, James Fenimore Cooper defended democracy against both mob rule and majority tyranny.

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Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

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Can the Postmodern Natural Law Remedy Our Failing Humanism?

A discussion with Graham McAleer

Graham McAleer discusses how postmodern natural law can help us think more coherently about human beings and our actions.

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Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

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America, Land of Deformed Institutions

A discussion with Yuval Levin

Yuval Levin pinpoints that American alienation and anger emerges from our weak political, social, and religious institutions.

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Recent Posts

  • The Just Restraint of the Vicious

    For some contemporary criminal justice reformers, devotion to ideology leads to illogical conclusions about human nature and character change.
    by Gerard T. Mundy

  • Too Immature to be Punished?

    When I look back on my own life, I think I knew by the age of ten that one should not strangle old ladies in their beds.
    by Theodore Dalrymple

  • A Badge of Discrimination

    The British National Health Service has spoken: Wear the badge or declare yourself to be a bigot.
    by Theodore Dalrymple

  • A Judicial Takeover of Asylum Policy?

    Thuraissigiam threatens to make both the law and the facts in every petition for asylum—and there are thousands of them—a matter for the courts.
    by Thomas Ascik

  • The Environmental Uncertainty Principle

    By engaging in such flagrant projection, the Times has highlighted once again the problem with groupthink in the climate discussion.
    by Paul Schwennesen

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Law & Liberty’s focus is on the classical liberal tradition of law and political thought and how it shapes a society of free and responsible persons. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law & Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

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