Gordon Wood’s Reflections on the Constitution and Slavery
At Northwestern University Law School’s Lincoln Lecture, endowed by my colleague Steve Calabresi, we had the great good fortune to hear a talk by Gordon Wood, the leading historian of ...
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Even Rocks Have Rights
This seems like a strange, maybe even oxymoronic topic. Yet because of the simple nature of a rock, you may soon experience the most profound understanding of human rights you ...
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Objections to Impeachment: “This Hasn’t Been Our Practice,” Part 2
This post continues the discussion from yesterday, addressing various forms of the argument that the original meaning of the impeachment power ought to be deemed superseded or qualified by the ...
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Merrick Garland and Brett Kavanaugh: Two Peas in a Pod?
Many conservatives cheered Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, convinced his presence will turn the tide toward liberty. For the first time in decades, “conservatives” hold a firm ...
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The Environment for Liberty
Economist Benjamin Zycher’s Liberty Forum essay shows how the National Environmental Policy Act, through its cost-shifting and completeness requirements, combined with the due deference doctrine established by the Chevron decision, ...
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Objections to Impeachment: The Protest that “This Hasn’t Been Our Practice,” Part 1
In my last several posts, I have been responding to standard objections often raised in opposition to a broad understanding of the constitutional power of impeachment – objections that one ...
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Avoiding the Next 50-48 Vote: Disempower the Court
After the Senate voted 50 to 48 to confirm Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Senator Elizabeth Warren tweeted that she was “not going to sugarcoat anything. We lost a tough fight. ...
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Four Truths
I have always contended that the Founder's said a lot with very few words. What they said is sometimes overlooked by the average reader, including myself. Here are the first ...
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Amanda Tyler and the Original Meaning of the Habeas Corpus Suspension Clause
While the original Constitution certainly had some defects — especially that it allowed slavery — it was in many ways an amazingly protective document. It was a classical liberal document ...
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Obsta principiis: Nip the Shoots of Arbitrary Power in the Bud
John Adams warned us. When you spot even the slightest violation of the Constitution, it’s imperative that you nip it in the bud. In 1774 and 1775, Daniel Leonard wrote ...
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