John O. McGinnis Subscribe

John O. McGinnis is the George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law at Northwestern University. His book Accelerating Democracy was published by Princeton University Press in 2012. McGinnis is also the coauthor with Mike Rappaport of Originalism and the Good Constitution published by Harvard University Press in 2013 . He is a graduate of Harvard College, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He has published in leading law reviews, including the Harvard, Chicago, and Stanford Law Reviews and the Yale Law Journal, and in journals of opinion, including National Affairs and National Review.

March 19, 2020|Entitlements, Goldberg v. Kelly, Justice William Brennan, Property Rights, Welfare State

Brennan’s Best or the Court’s Worst?

by John O. McGinnis|

Justice William Brennan (Library of Congress)

The opinion showed off a hallmark of Brennan's jurisprudence—his confidence that the Court was better than the political branches at making social policy.

March 12, 2020|Academia, Bernie Sanders, Democratic Primary, Elizabeth Warren, technocrats

Elizabeth Warren: Candidate of the Faculty Lounge

by John O. McGinnis|

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at the National Press Club, August 21st, 2018 (Albert H. Teich / Shutterstock.com).

The reaction to the end of Warren’s campaign captures the blindness of the academic lounge and the establishment press to which it is intimately connected.

March 5, 2020|Federalist Society, Legal Education, Neil Gorsuch, New Originalism, Originalism

The Empire Strikes Back Against Originalism

by John O. McGinnis|

Image: Sebastian Duda/Shutterstock.com

Because original meaning depends on facts, it is, in principle, ascertainable, unlike the personal values of judges.

February 27, 2020|Administrative State, Originalism, Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, textualism, Unitary Executive

Independent Agencies Brought to Heel?

by John O. McGinnis|

The Securities and Exchange Commission Building in Washington, D.C. (Kristi Blokhin/shutterstock.com)

Originalism sits uneasily with the concept of independent agencies, and textualism raises questions about the basis for some agencies' independence.

February 20, 2020|American Revolution, French Revolution, Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, Jeremy Popkin, Self-Government

Lessons of the French Revolution

by John O. McGinnis|

Pierre-Antoine DeMachy, Une Exécution capitale, place de la Révolution, (Wikimedia Commons)

Being wholly unschooled in any institution of representative government, the French relied on direct and violent action.

February 13, 2020|Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, Free Exercise, Political Economy, Religious Freedom Restoration Act, Religious Liberty, school choice

The Political Economy of the Free Exercise Clause

by John O. McGinnis|

Students at a private school walk to class (Shutterstock.com)

Because of its likely rebuff to a key progressive principle, Espinoza is potentially the most significant Supreme Court case this term.

February 6, 2020|Democratic Primary, Identity Politics, Originalism, Supreme Court, Supreme Court Nominees

Why Democrats Aren’t Naming Names

by John O. McGinnis|

November 30, 2018 - Washington, District of Columbia, U.S. - The Supreme Court Justices pose for their official group portrait in the Supreme Court on November 30, 2018 in Washington, DC Seated from left: Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. Standing behind from left: Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh. Kevin Dietsch/Pool via CNP

The Democratic candidates offering left-wing variations of Trump's populism recognize the dangers of imitating his transparency on judicial selection.

January 30, 2020|health care, healthcare, public option, single-payer

The Public Option Leads to Government Domination of Health Care

by John O. McGinnis|

(shutterstock.com)

The relative success of the U.S. medical system underscores the dangers of putting it under government control.

January 23, 2020|Economic growth, Facebook, Identity Politics, New York Times

The Times Reveals Its Priorities

by John O. McGinnis|

New York Times Headquarters building in 2016 (Osugi/Shutterstock.com).

The Times is doubling down on the policies and cultural attitudes that led to the improbable victory of Donald Trump.

January 16, 2020|Classical Liberalism, Libertarianism, Mediating Institutions, Tyler Cowen

The Inadequacy of State Capacity Libertarianism

by John O. McGinnis|

Tyler Cowen interviews Nate Silver at George Mason University in 2015. Photo courtesy of Mercatus Center

Modern libertarianism has too narrow a view of social harm and too limited a role for government in encouraging mediating institutions that ameliorate it.

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.

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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