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January 22, 2020|Catholicism, Constitutionalism, Evangelicals

Conservative Constitutionalism beyond Originalism

by George Thomas|

Image: Adobe Stock
Ken Kersch draws on capacious understandings of the Constitution that are not well known outside of what became the Christian right.

September 3, 2019|American Citizenship, Conservatism, Constitutionalism, Federalism, Federalist Papers, Progressivism

Ruin or Renewal? Thoughts on America’s Third Century

by Henry Olsen|

design by Moab Republic (shutterstock.com)
The middle ground between the master and the slave is the free person, and to truly make all people free is ever the aim of the statesman.

May 9, 2019|Constitutionalism, District of Columbia v. Heller, Janus v. American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletics Association, NIFLA v. Becerra, Obergefell v. Hodges, symmetry

Symmetric Constitutionalism: A Judicial Ethos for Polarized Times

by Zachary S. Price|

BCFC/Shutterstock.com
Courts should seek doctrinal principles that bear even-handed application across different contexts with differing ideological implications.

January 2, 2019|Conservatism, Constitutionalism, Donald Trump, Norms

Trump and the Habits of the Conservative Heart

by Greg Weiner|

The White House, Washington, D.C. (Lux Blue/Shutterstock.com).
The question for conservatism is whether 2019 will be a tougher year for James Madison and Alexis de Tocqueville than it is for Donald Trump.

October 17, 2018|Alexander Hamilton, American Founding, Constitutionalism, James Madison, Jay Cost, The Price of Greatness

Hamilton, Madison, and American Oligarchy: A Conversation with Jay Cost

by Jay Cost|

Jay Cost, author of The Price of Greatness, discusses the political and economic debates between Hamilton and Madison.

May 15, 2018|Constitutionalism, Liberty Fund Books, Originalism

Announcing Liberty Classics

by Law & Liberty Editors|

We believe that the first written reference to the concept of liberty is the ancient Sumerian cuneiform symbol "amagi" which Liberty Fund uses as its logo.
Liberty Classics is a new series of essays reviewing books in Liberty Fund's extensive catalog of publications.

March 9, 2018|Clint Bolick, Constitutionalism, grand theory, honest textualism, Originalism, Richard Epstein, textualism

Textualism and the Virtues of Honest Reading

by James R. Rogers|

Evgeny Atamanenko / Shutterstock.com
Reading legal texts doesn't put us in a different interpretive world: we should always embrace honest textualism.

January 17, 2018|Common Sense, Constitutionalism, ethical reading, Honesty, Keith Whittington, Originalism

The Ethical Mandate for Originalism

by James R. Rogers|

Keith Whittington speaks at Texas A&M. Department of Political Science, Texas A&M/Alexander Hamilton Institute.
Originalism is the way we all want to be read, so why doesn't it have more adherents?

January 8, 2018|Antonin Scalia, Conservatism, Constitutionalism, culture, ideas in profile, Ordered Liberty, permanent things, Richard Posner, Roger Scruton

Sir Roger to the Rescue

by Stephen Presser|

Scruton provides timely advice to conservatives about how to defend ordered liberty.

July 12, 2017|Constitutionalism, Lyceum Address, Rule of Law

The Grounds on Which to Resist the Resistance

by Herman Belz|

resistance

Perhaps no concept in American politics is more familiar and appealing—yet more vacuous of meaning—than “the rule of law.” A close rival might be the equally indispensable but ambiguous word “constitution.”

While rhetorical ambiguity sometimes proves useful in politics, sustained disregard of the meaning of these fundamental ideas has a demoralizing effect on republican government. Notwithstanding the pragmatic, if not providential, ability of the American people to select worthy leaders through most of their history, to misunderstand or ignore fundamental principles of law and constitutionalism is to begin to undermine what Abraham Lincoln identified as “the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted like ours”—namely, “the attachment of the People.”

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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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