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August 27, 2019|Barack Obama, Classical Liberalism, Donald Trump, human nature, Libertarianism, Liberty

The Precarious State of Liberty in the USA

by Douglas B. Rasmussen|

Protesters at the "Presidents Day Protest to Fight Trump's Fake Crisis," in San Francisco, California on February 18, 2019 (Sheila Fitzgerald / Shutterstock.com).
The prevailing intellectual culture is becoming more and more convinced that concepts like liberty do not have any reference in reality.

January 15, 2019|Barack Obama, Border Wall, Clear Statement Rule, DACA, Delegation of Powers, Donald Trump, Immigration

How Unilateral Claims of Presidential Power Energize Polarization

by John O. McGinnis|

Image: Wael Alreweie / Shutterstock.com
As the parties become polarized, the Presidents become more extreme on the political spectrum.

November 8, 2018|14th Amendment, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Edmund Burke, Federalist #63, Originalism, Steve King

Political Originalism and the Problem of Power

by Greg Weiner|

Image: Charles Brutlag / Shutterstock.com
Originalism is not merely a theory of how the Constitution should be preserved but also of how, precisely, it should change.

April 3, 2018|Abraham Lincoln, American National Character Project, Barack Obama, Declaration of Independence, Donald Trump, E Pluribus Unum, Frederick Douglass

To Secure the Blessings of Liberty: Sharing Stories of American Civic Purposes

by Rogers Smith|

Kent Weakley/Shutterstock.com
One the ways Americans can unite is over our shared purposes, but for this to work, we need a renewed attention to the story of American liberty.

March 14, 2018|Barack Obama, Donald Trump, electoral politics, Hillary Clinton, Voter Turnout

Voter Turnout and the Prospects for the Republican Party

by James R. Rogers|

Alexandru Nika / Shutterstock.com
Looking closely at voter turnout patterns tells a mixed story about Republicans' chances for victory in the midterms and beyond.

February 1, 2018|Barack Obama, Executive Power, George Washington, Jeffrey Tulis, President Donald Trump, The Federalist, The Rhetorical Presidency, Theodore Roosevelt

Presidential Rhetoric and the Challenge to American Constitutionalism: A Conversation with Jeffrey Tulis

by Jeffrey K. Tulis|

President Theodore Roosevelt
Have changes in the style and manner of presidential rhetoric in the 20th century served us well?

July 28, 2017|Barack Obama, Ben Carson, Conversations, False Black Power?, Glenn C. Loury, Jason L. Riley, John McWhorter

Electing Blacks Hasn’t Really Helped: A Conversation with Jason L. Riley

by Jason L. Riley|

Jason Riley

The writings of Jason L. Riley span politics, economics, education, immigration, and race, among other subjects. The Buffalo-born Riley has worked for the Buffalo News, USA Today, and, for the last 23 years, the Wall Street Journal, becoming one of the leading conservative journalists in the United States. The frequent Fox News commentator is currently working on a biography of Thomas Sowell. Riley’s first book, which was about immigration, was Let Them In (2008). Next came Please Stop Helping Us (2014), examining the history of failed governmental assistance to black Americans. Templeton Press has just published his third book, False…

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May 17, 2017|Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Edmund Burke, Michael Oakeshott, Presidential Power

Burning Down His House

by Greg Weiner|

 

No man enters the presidency prepared for the office, yet few chief magistrates have managed a stage entry as startlingly rife with incompetence and impropriety as Donald Trump. The reason is that the inherent, inertial conservatism of the office disciplines most of its occupants.

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March 1, 2017|

Congress in Search of Itself             

by John Marini|

Christopher DeMuth had an interesting take on the election and its impact on our national institutions. In an essay for the Wall Street Journal, he wrote of the present inability of the political branches of government to function in a manner compatible with a national public good. Analyzing that failure, he pointed to what he believes is “a central purpose of the American scheme of checks and balances,” namely: to draw out the distinctive strengths of the two political branches, executive and the legislature, while containing their distinctive weaknesses. The scheme has not been working well of late. The consequences are…

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Responses

How to Put the “Most Complete and Effectual Weapon” Back in Their Hands

by Kevin R. Kosar

Indubitably, our nation’s finances are a mess. America has run deficits 36 of the past 40 years. The national debt is $18 trillion, and it has tripled as a percentage of GDP since 1974. Each February, the President rolls out his budget—a collection of tomes loaded with tables and text attempting to explain the government’s $3.7…

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More Reasons to Doubt that Separation of Powers Can Be Revived

by Ralph Rossum

John Marini provides an insightful commentary on Christopher Demuth’s optimistic suggestion that President Trump and the Republican Congress will be able to revive separation of powers and, by so doing, rescue us from an “autopilot government, rife with corruption and seemingly immune to incremental electoral correction” that the administrative state has created. Marini is less…

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The Real Ruling Authority

by Colleen Sheehan

Americans are worried about the economy and jobs, about national security and safety from terrorism, about securing healthcare, about their children’s education. Lately I haven’t heard too many people talking about the problem of separation of powers. In fact, besides John Marini, Christopher DeMuth, Jonathan Turley, and a few other scholars and policy wonks, I…

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Overthrowing the Rule of Organized Intelligence: John Marini Replies

by John Marini

I would like to thank Kevin Kosar, Ralph Rossum, and Colleen Sheehan for their thoughtful and generous responses to my essay, “Congress in Search of Itself”.  Although there were many areas of agreement, and very few disagreements, each author focused on a different aspect of the problem posed by the contemporary role of Congress, and…

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January 19, 2017|Barack Obama, Trump's Inauguration

A New President

by Richard M. Reinsch II, Lauren Weiner|

President Washington's Inauguration in New York City, April 23, 1789.

Tomorrow will make it official that Donald J. Trump is the 45th President of the United States of America. His inauguration will likely be full of the Americana that many of us love, one that will provide telling points of patriotism and gratitude without any of the postmodern irony that lurked in Obama’s second inaugural where he said the truths of the Declaration of Independence “may” be self evident, and, without pausing, concluded that we should still be willing to work eagerly on their behalf.  Trump’s election tells us that Americans are not rushing to enter the age of post-national and…

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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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About

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.

The opinions expressed on Law & Liberty are solely those of the contributors to the site and do not reflect the opinions of Liberty Fund.
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