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January 20, 2020|Aristotle, Political Philosophy, Rhetoric

Reason and Rhetoric

by Mary P. Nichols|

We must rediscover how Aristotle’s Rhetoric brings light into what Socrates saw as the political “cave.”

July 9, 2019|Flight 93 Election, Michael Anton, Rhetoric

The Flight from Virtue

by Adam White|

Detail view of the Flight 93 National Memorial in Stoystown, PA (Chicago Photographer/Shutterstock.com).
We have yet to see the days “after” the Flight 93 Election; if anything, we have only begun the Flight 93 Era of American politics.

December 31, 2018|Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders, Classical Liberalism, Dear Colleague Letters, deregulation, Donald Trump, Rhetoric

2018: A Gathering Storm for Classical Liberalism

by John O. McGinnis|

U.S. Capitol (zimmytws/shutterstock.com)
Forces appear to be gathering to push America toward the greatest aggrandizement of the state since the New Deal.

August 13, 2018|hate speech, Language, Rhetoric, violence

The Violence in Our Language

by Theodore Dalrymple|

A butcher shop in Venice, Italy (J. Pyle/Adobe Stock Images).
We probably shouldn't criminalize speech that encourages violence, but this doesn't rule out a deep concern for where it leads.

August 22, 2015|Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia, John Jackson, John Marshall, Obergefell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Rhetoric

In Defense of Scalia’s Style

by John O. McGinnis|

Justice Antonin Scalia is criticized these days ostensibly not for the substance but for the style of his opinions. His writing is said to be disrespectful as when he critiques the Justice Kennedy’s opinion in Obergefell, the recent case on same-sex marriage. There he stated: “If, even as the price to be paid for a fifth vote, I ever joined an opinion for the Court that began: “The Constitution promises liberty to all within its reach, a liberty that includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity,” I would hide my head in a bag.”  He also noted: “The Supreme Court of the United States has descended from the disciplined legal reasoning of John Marshall and Joseph Story to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.”

I cannot join in the criticism of his style. That is not to say I particularly warm to the all rhetoric of his dissent in Obergefell.  It is not as powerful as that of his masterpiece in Casey, which also had harsh passages, but his disdain has a point.   The value of an opinion is measured by the coherence of its reasoning. If someone’s opinion is as unreasoned as Kennedy vapidities about identity, it is worth pointing out with some virulence.  What John Hart Ely famously said of Roe is true of Obergefell: it is not constitutional law and gives almost no sense of an obligation to try to be.

If Scalia believes (and I think he has reason to believe) that the many of the justices joining in Kennedy’s opinion were doing so for its result not for its reasons, they are not acting judicially.  Ridicule in defense of the rule of law is no vice.

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March 19, 2013|Originalism, Rhetoric

The Rhetoric of Judicial Opinions

by Mike Rappaport|

My previous post on Arguments from the Future touches on an extremely important issue — the Rhetoric of Judicial Opinions.  Originalism has an extremely powerful rhetorical appeal.  Most people regard the original meaning of the Constitution as the real Constitution.  Therefore, when someone seeks to depart from that, they are at a disadvantage.

There are a variety of moves that nonoriginalists have used to deflect this attack.  One is to bring up something of a red herring.  They interpret originalism as reflecting merely the expected applications of the framers — the specific applications of the constitutional clauses that the framers expected to occur — and then argue that those expected applications are not the Constitution.

But obviously this deflection is insufficient.  It does nothing to address the more plausible types of originalism, such as original public meaning, that go beyond the expected applications.

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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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