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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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August 3, 2015|Bonham's Case, Natural Law, R.H. Helmholz, Somerset's Case, William Blackstone

The Elephant in the Courtroom: The Inescapable Legacy of Natural Law

by Bruce P. Frohnen|

R.H. Helmholz begins his groundbreaking new book with a deceptively humble claim: In early modern Europe and early republican America, natural law had “real but limited success in determining the outcome of contested cases.” Helmholz’s exhaustive analysis of historical records shows that arguments rooted in the natural law tradition influenced court cases in the years before the legal revolutions set in motion by the Napoleonic and American Civil Wars, but almost always in conjunction with citations of positive law. Natural Law in Court: A History of Legal Theory in Practice corrects those who dismiss natural law as mere ideological window dressing,…

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March 24, 2014|Administrative State, Bonham's Case, Common Law, Non-User Doctrine, Obamacare

The Dead Letter of the Law

by Richard M. Reinsch II|

A recent report from the Wall Street Journal flatly stated that with “so many unilateral executive waivers and delays . . . ObamaCare must be unrecognizable to its drafters, to the extent they ever knew what the law contained.” As Richard Epstein memorably put it, this amounts to “Government by Waiver.” In the case of Obamacare, the waivers and exemptions go to the heart of the bill itself. Healthcare coverage mandates for companies have been waived until 2015, and now word comes that the individual mandate has been quietly waived indefinitely for those individuals whose plans were cancelled and who cannot find affordable insurance on the exchanges.

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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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