• About
  • Contact
  • Staff
  • Home
  • Essays
  • Forum
  • Podcasts
  • Book Reviews
  • Liberty Classics

April 16, 2018|John C. Calhoun's Theory of Republicanism, John G. Grove, John Locke, Missouri Crisis, Nullification, Slavery

John C. Calhoun, Madisonian Manqué

by Thomas W. Merrill|

His institutional innovations were geared toward preserving slavery.

August 14, 2015|Henry Clay, John Calhoun, Judge David Bunning, Judicial Supremacy, Kim Davis, Miller v. Davis, Nullification, Obergefell v. Hodges, Religious Liberty

Obergefell and the New Nullification

by Greg Weiner|

Perhaps we should add this affirmation to the orientation session for federal judges: The Supremacy Clause means the Constitution and laws arising under it outrank their state counterparts. It does not mean the judiciary is supreme over the coordinate national branches of government. Judge David Bunning of the Eastern District of Kentucky did not quite assert the latter in ruling this week, correctly, that an elected county clerk cannot exempt herself from a decision, however errant, of the Supreme Court. He flirted with it, though: “Our form of government will not survive," he wrote, "unless we, as a society, agree to respect…

Read More

September 4, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Cato, New York Times, Nullification, Robert A. Levy, Washington Post

Resistance Yes, Nullification No

by Michael S. Greve|

This week, I’m drumming my ConLaw students through the nullification debates. Also, the local newspaperman decided that the Greves are probably entitled to some paper(s), though not necessarily the one(s) they ordered. Though probably unrelated, the events invite reflection. Trust me: there’s a point.

Read More

April 17, 2012|

“The People Themselves” and the Beauty of a Well-Constructed System:James Madison, the Crisis of 1798, and Constitutional Safeguards

by Todd Estes|

In response to: Sound the Alarm to the People: James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the Principles of 1798

Colleen Sheehan is one of our best students of James Madison. Over a span of years, she has produced a series of significant and insightful articles and book chapters that treat the Virginian’s political thought with a special emphasis on his conception of the role of public opinion in politics.  In 2009 she drew together much of her previous scholarship in her book, James Madison and the Spirit of Republican Self-Government. [1] With the present essay, which builds on and draws from her book, Sheehan probes further the question of the proper role for state legislatures and the people themselves…

Read More

More Responses

Who Judges the Constitution?

by James Read

I am pleased to participate in this Law and Liberty forum and to comment on Colleen Sheehan’s “Sounding the Alarm to the People.” In my view Sheehan’s characterization of Madison is right on the mark. In particular I agree with her: 1) that Madison recognized the federal government might sometimes exercise power dangerously, in ways…

Read More

April 17, 2012|

Sound the Alarm to the People: James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and the Principles of 1798

by Colleen Sheehan|

In the pages of The Federalist, Publius reassured not only his contemporaries but future generations of Americans, that if there be times in the life of our republic in which one or more branches of the national government should shamelessly exercise power beyond that prescribed by the Constitution, the state legislatures will be ever ready to mark the violation and “sound the alarm to the people.”[1] Nine years after the institution of the new government under the Constitution, in response to the notorious Alien and Sedition Acts, the state legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia did precisely this.  Thomas Jefferson drafted the…

Read More

Responses

“The People Themselves” and the Beauty of a Well-Constructed System:James Madison, the Crisis of 1798, and Constitutional Safeguards

by Todd Estes

Colleen Sheehan is one of our best students of James Madison. Over a span of years, she has produced a series of significant and insightful articles and book chapters that treat the Virginian’s political thought with a special emphasis on his conception of the role of public opinion in politics.  In 2009 she drew together…

Read More

Who Judges the Constitution?

by James Read

I am pleased to participate in this Law and Liberty forum and to comment on Colleen Sheehan’s “Sounding the Alarm to the People.” In my view Sheehan’s characterization of Madison is right on the mark. In particular I agree with her: 1) that Madison recognized the federal government might sometimes exercise power dangerously, in ways…

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.

Read More

Podcasts

Stuck With Decadence

A discussion with Ross Douthat

Ross Douthat discusses with Richard Reinsch his new book The Decadent Society.

Read More

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.

Read More

Did the Civil Rights Constitution Distort American Politics?

A discussion with Christopher Caldwell

Christopher Caldwell discusses his new book, The Age of Entitlement.

Read More

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.

Read More

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.
  • Home
  • About
  • Staff
  • Contact
  • Archive

© 2021 Liberty Fund, Inc.

This site uses local and third-party cookies to analyze traffic. If you want to know more, click here.
By closing this banner or clicking any link in this page, you agree with this practice.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Necessary Always Enabled

Subscribe
Get Law and Liberty's latest content delivered to you daily
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Close