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May 14, 2013|Jeremy Rabkin, Obamacare, PPACA, reptile fund

Government as a Reptile Fund

by Michael S. Greve|

Last Saturday’s Washington Post carried a front-page article on the IRS’s enforcement choices (“IRS targeted tea party groups for tax scrutiny”). We’ll hear more about that matter. Right underneath the IRS piece, still above the fold, the Post had this: “HHS asking firms for money for Obamacare.” Secretary Sebelius, we learn, has called health industry executives and other “stakeholders” for money to promote Obamacare and to enhance enrollment.

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April 29, 2013|American Enterprise Institute, Barry Cushman, Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, Jack Balkin, Jeremy Rabkin, Randy Barnett, Richard Epstein, Suzanna Sherry, United States v. Carolene Products

The New Deal Constitution at 75

by Michael S. Greve|

This past Thursday marked the 75th anniversary of two foundational New Deal decisions, handed down on Monday, April 25, 1938: Erie Railroad v. Tompkins, and United States v. Carolene Products. The American Enterprise Institute celebrated this day of infamy with a two-part event. The tape is here.

I strongly recommend it. You may want to skip the first 13 minutes (some clown wisecracking about the dairy industry’s contribution to ConLaw) but you do not want to miss the main events:

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December 26, 2012|Akhil Reed Amar, America's Unwritten Constitution, Common Law, Jeremy Rabkin, Jim Stoner, John McGinnis, Natural Law, Neutral Principles jurisprudence, Originalism, Robert Bork

Common Law and Constitutional Exceptionalism

by Ken Masugi|

The significance of James Stoner’s Forum essay on the common law, with the two responses by Hadley Arkes and John McGinnis, is made even clearer by recent events. Commentary on the sad passing of Judge Robert Bork and three reviews of Akhil Amar’s new book, America’s Unwritten Constitution, by Robert George, Jeremy Rabkin (link no longer available), and  Lino Graglia provoke further reflections on the place of law and the courts within constitutional government.   At the heart of the dispute is the extent to which legal interpretation, including of course constitutional jurisprudence, can exist apart from political philosophy. And this no mere academic dispute raises the profoundest questions of how we might defend and expand our fading freedoms.

Stoner’s concern for common law is an essential historical inquiry but as well part of a broader attempt to recover the meaning of the American founding for both theory and contemporary practice.  Professor McGinnis finds troubling the potentially expanding and arbitrary power in the content of contemporary common law, while Professor Arkes would further develop Stoner’s argument, to embrace specific consequences of natural law reasoning. Among them, and the work of other scholars, they bring out major schools of interpretation put forth by conservative legal scholars.

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March 26, 2012|Jack Goldsmith, Jeremy Rabkin, Mary Dudziak, Power and Constraint

Power and Constraint

by Michael S. Greve|

Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith has written a very informative, admirably researched book entitled Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11.  Goldsmith tackles an intriguing puzzle:  despite a lot of 2008 campaign rhetoric, the Obama Administration has in fact continued (and in a few instances expanded) the Bush Administration’s policies and strategies in the “War on Terror” (and the—liberal—contingents that had sharply criticized the Bush Administration have largely sat still for it).  In addition to the usual suspects—such as the fact that the world always looks a lot different from the White House than it does on the campaign…

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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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