Balkinization   |
Balkinization
Balkinization Symposiums: A Continuing List                                                                E-mail: Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu David Luban david.luban at gmail.com Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu Compendium of posts on Hobby Lobby and related cases The Anti-Torture Memos: Balkinization Posts on Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, and OLC The Anti-Torture Memos (arranged by topic) Recent Posts Et tu, Garrett
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Et tu, Garrett
Sandy Levinson
Garrett Epps, whom I very much like personally and whose work I greatly admire, has an article in the current Nation justifiably attacking some Tea Partiers (think of Michelle Bachman) for their wacky, and often pernicious, views of the Constitution. The subtite of his piece (I assume the product of Nation headline writers) is "Inside the right's cammpaign to hijack our country's founding text--and how to fight back." So, given that I agree with a great deal of the piece, including, for example, his takedown of Antonin Scalia for basic dishonesty in the way he actually operationalizes his vaunted commitment to "originalism" and a "dead Constitution" (Scalia's term, not his critics'), why am I left so dismayed after reading the piece?
Comments:
"I agree strongly with Epps that the actual number of rights specified for states is astonishingly few,"
Well, aside from that pesky 10th amendment, which basically gives the states jurisdiction over EVERYTHING the constitution doesn't hand to the federal government. That's a pretty big grant, if you don't elide most of the language of the interstate commerce clause, and 'interpret' "necessary and proper" as "convenient".
With regard to the "takedown" of Justice Scalia on originalism that Sandy notes in his first paragraph,
so do Harold Anthony Lloyd in his "'Original' Means Old, 'Original' Means New: An 'Original' Look At What 'Originalists' Do" available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1745302 and Larry Rosenthal in his "Originalism In Practice" also available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=174423 (each of whom also throws in Justice Thomas for good measure). Direct links are available at Larry Solum's Legal Theory Blog. Brett plays the role of a rather simplistic originalist bomb-tosser with his reference to "that pesky 10th amendment." What does originalism tell us of the 10th amendment? And does the ninth amendment also, via "We the People," add to powers of states? Just what are the rights specified for states in the tenth amendment? Brett should put a constitutional band-aid on his Wick-burn, as necessary and proper for his healing, especially if he reads - and understands - Profs. Lloyd and Rosenthal's articles.
Epps is, I imagine, trying to develop a conception of the Constitution which, if accepted, would justify the political outcomes that he holds dear. To the extent that you are attacking his conception on the grounds that it is factually false (or at least highly selective), this is not necessarily germane to his project. OTOH, if you are arguing that his conception, even if accepted, will not in fact achieve as much as you (and he) would like, he might respond that your position will achieve nothing at all because there is no evidence of any political inclination to take radical steps such as abolishing the Senate.
More importantly, a few weeks ago you were arguing that the issue of filibuster reform was a defining one for the Obama administration and the Senate leadership. Since that has apparently been resolved, what are your views on how they did?
Brett, the 10th A says not a single word about "rights" of states. It only uses the word "powers".
That's putting aside the fact that it's an irrelevance anyway; all it does is gild the lily.
Oh, I agree, states' "rights" is a sloppy way of referring to states' powers. But the 10th amendment is only irrelevant if you've decided the Constitution, of which it is a legally ratified part, is irrelevant.
Which an awful lot of liberals have so decided, though prudence dictates that they not say so.
Who says the Constitution is irrelevant? That the tenth amendment is irrelevant? What is relevant is how the Constitution, as amended, is to be interpreted/construed in the here and now. When the Constitution, or any of its amendments, is not clear in its meaning, originalism too often, as Prof. Rosenthal in particular points out, fails to provide the answer. But perhaps there are gaps that even non-originalism cannot provide answers to. Perhaps this is the gist of Sandy's concerns with Epps. If the Constitution needs fixing, how to fix it is a problem of great magnitude in the current political climate.
The Originalism Blog provides a link to a recent Ohio State Law Journal Symposium on "Originalism and the Jury." Query as to incorporation of the Seventh Amendment to apply to the States? (I'll be thinking of McDonald v. Chicago as I read the papers - and $20.00 measured today as compared to 1791 and 1868.)
Shag, when the Constitution was ratified, the word "dollar" was understood to refer to a particularly widely circulated and imitated Spanish coin of consistent weight. The US dollar was adopted as a coin of identical weight, interchangeable with it. Hamilton actually weighed a bunch of them, and averaged the weight, when our currency was designed.
So, from an originalist standpoint, how to interpret the $20 thing is easy: The current value of the silver in 20 historical Spanish "dollars". That would, by my calculations, be about $485 or our highly inflated fiat currency, as of today.
When is the measurement point of $20.00 under originalism relative to the 14th Amendment, assuming incorporation of the 7th Amendment to apply to the states, 1868 or 1791?
And should eligible ages for elective offices be modified to reflect changes in mortality tables since 1789? By the Bybee (&$^%@#), Hamilton probably had a thumb on the scale.
Possibly he did; He came up with an average weight of 27 grams, while historians seem to think that it was more like 25. But maybe he simply made a point of using unworn "dollars"; The coins were of fairly high purity, and thus wore away easily.
In any event, the word "dollar" doesn't appear anywhere in the 14th amendment that I can see, so I can't figure out how any originalist would think ratification of the 14th amendment reset the clock on it's meaning.
Brett, everyone at the time thought the 10th A was superfluous. That's why the Federalists were willing to pass it. All it did was codify the inclusio unius rule of construction which was widely admitted during the ratification debates.
And when you consider the language of the 10th A itself, it's obvious that it can't possibly mean anything. It refers only to "powers not delegated". That means the whole ballgame consists in interpreting the powers which were delegated under Art. I, Sec. 8. If the power was delegated, the 10th A is inapplicable on its own terms. If the power wasn't delegated, Congress would lack power even if the 10th A had never been adopted.
The word "arms" from the Second Amendment - does it appear in the 14th Amendment? Wasn't there a sort of "reset" in the context of the framing/ratification of the 14th Amendment considered in McDonald v. Chicago?
Sandy:
What in particular do you admire about Mr. Epps' writing style? Epps starts off his rant against "the toxic coalition of Fox News talking heads, radio hosts, angry "patriot" groups and power-hungry right-wing politicians" by creating a lunatic strawman in the person of one Lester Pearce, of whom nearly no conservative or Tea Party member has ever heard. Our Tea Party group discusses the Constitution as it is written without feeling the need to engage in wild forays into Mosaic law. Then there is the paragraph which ridicules Congress for reading the Constitution as it exists rather than some prior version and for suggesting that prior Congresses have acted in excess of their Article I powers by requiring that future legislation cite Congress' Art. I authority, with a bizarre Monty Python-esque side journey to the shooting of Congresswoman Gifford. Does any serious person disagree that the Constitution as amended is the law of the land and that past Congresses have often enacted unconstitutional legislation? Then there are these gems: So the right is seeking to win by changing the rules. Progressive, democratically enacted policy choices are unconstitutional, they argue. Any democratically enacted policy choice is unconstitutional if it exceeds Congress' Article I powers to do so. A very reasonable argument can be made that progressive policies have a far greater track record of exceeding those enumerated powers than most, thus the progressive judicial rewrite of the Commerce and N&P clauses past anything justified by the text in order to find progressive policies constitutional. A document that over time has become more democratic and egalitarian is being rewritten as a charter of privilege and inequality. Presumably, Mr. Epps is arguing here that enforcing the Constitution as written will make it less democratic and egalitarian because such an approach would outlaw much of the progressive project. Mr. Epps must be referring to big "D" Democratic Party because taking the power to legislate from an unelected bureaucracy and it to the Congress would hardly make the government less small "d" democratic. I stopped reading after this next classic paragraph: Conservatives also claim that the Constitution was set up to restrain the federal government. If so, there's precious little evidence of it. The actual text of the Constitution is overwhelmingly concerned with making sure the new government had enough power; the framers thought the old Articles of Confederation were fatally weak. Even a middle school child attending civic class at a government school knows about the checks and balances, even if their teach likely skipped over the enumerated powers language at the beginning of Article I and do not share Brett's temerity of quoting the unambiguous language of the Tenth Amendment. The argument that the Founders desired a nearly unrestrained federal government simply because they recognized that the federal government under the Articles of Confederation was fatally hobbled is the weakest of non sequiturs. Our Constitution as it is written arguably shackles our national government more than any other constitution in effect around the world. Those few minor quibbles aside, I am sure that a book with the sober and reflective title "Unhinged: Reclaiming Our Constitution From the Lunatic Right" is sure to sell well among the readers of The Nation and those of like mind.
Our yodeler says a lot but does not read a lot. Consider his:
"I stopped reading after this next classic paragraph: ...." I printed out the Epps article of just over 6 pages in length. The paragraph our yodeler quotes appears just shy of the middle of page 3, thus ignoring over 50% of the article. Apparently our yodeler got "Unhinged." By the Bybee (%*^&#$@), our yodeler's reference to: " ... the unambiguous language of the Tenth Amendment." reveals his long suffering constitutional diarrhea. By the Bybee (%&^#$*@) II, the recent Senate Tea Party caucus of three Senators meant that only one tea bag had to be spent - no need for lemon, thank you.
"Brett, everyone at the time thought the 10th A was superfluous."
No, that it was redundant. Redundant, in the sense that, once you've written something, bolding the text is redundant. Underlining the bolded text is redundant. And following the text with another passage saying, "And I really meant it!" is redundant. Subsequent history has shown, of course, that if a text is read by somebody determined to misunderstand it, saying something twice won't really stop them. Just like a belt AND suspenders won't keep your pants from falling down, if you're deliberately taking them off. Bu, superfluous? Not on your life.
Brett makes mountains out of molehills with his challenge of Mark's use of "superfluous." My nearby Webster's New World Dictionary #1 definition of "superfluous" reads: "being more than is needed, useful, or wanted; surplus; excessive." And its #1 definition of Brett's preferred "redundant" reads: "more than enough; overabundant; excess; superfluous." Granted, my rusty, trusty Webster's does not take us back to the old original Webster's of 1791 that originalists might wish to consult. I shall leave that to those who think the language of the 10th Amendment is "unambiguous," which my Webster's does not define but does provide its #1 definition for "ambiguous" as follows: "having two or more possible meanings."
By the Bybee (#*^&%@$), Brett might provide a cite for this claim: "Subsequent history has shown, of course, that if a text is read by somebody determined to misunderstand it, saying something twice won't really stop them. " like the majority in Heller and McDonald v. Chicago? Or is Brett figuratively "mooning" with his subsequent reference to belt, suspenders and pants falling down?
Brett:
Actually, the Tenth Amendment is the third statement that the federal government is limited to its enumerated powers. Article I states this at the beginning and again in the N&P clause.
"The conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added."
Sometimes, this "whereas" type language is included in publications of the BOR and I find it informative. The fact that certain things were included in the BOR over others (Madison would have also included other "declaratory" type clauses) is of some note. The 10A was included because the basic principle was deemed important to express in red ink, so to speak. It is on that level not a trivial inclusion and as with other amendments, its power and symbolic weight grew beyond its explicit words to its assumed "penumbras and emanations." I'd add that I share Mark Field's distaste for using "right" with "states" but the term was so applied over the years, including by various people of the Founding Generation. For good or ill.
Joe, I think your point has force with respect to those who were doubtful about the new Constitution. But the Federalists -- and they controlled Congress and many of the state legislatures -- didn't think the 10th A was important at all. In fact, it was precisely because it was unimportant that they were willing to provide the votes to pass it.
Professor Levinson -
Thank you for yet another thoughtful post. I was particularly intrigued by your brief discussion of what you term the "Constitution of Settlement." In the Balkinization symposium on Bruce Ackerman's recent book, Stephen Griffin referred directly, and you more obliquely, to the optimistic "Yale tradition" of constitutional theory. It's interesting that you share such an awareness for the power of numbers and dates - the seemingly more banal aspects of the constitutional text - with Akhil Amar, a prominent advocate of that tradition and someone who seems to revere the Constitution in a way you do not. As I'm sure you know, Amar has written and said that the ability to insert all the numbers in the Constitution would be more influential than all the rights and vague clauses guaranteeing them. I always enjoy finding connections across the work of scholars who disagree on many levels. As always, I appreciate your contributions to the important discourse on this blog.
Mark, I agree the Federalists didn't think they were giving up anything there, but the same might have been said about the BOR as a whole.
Madison included it because he knew others were concerned about the matter, warranting this specific "unimportant" declaratory statement. If it was totally superfluous, there would be no need to put it there in the first place. And, once there, over time, it was likely to gain power in ways Federalists might not have supported, including providing a gloss to reaffirm the "spirit" the document that goes beyond the words. This is the current "10A." Anyway, "everyone" wouldn't be "Federalists," so that seems an edit of an earlier comment.
If it was totally superfluous, there would be no need to put it there in the first place.
Which was the Federalist position. And, once there, over time, it was likely to gain power in ways Federalists might not have supported, including providing a gloss to reaffirm the "spirit" the document that goes beyond the words. This is the current "10A." Anyway, "everyone" wouldn't be "Federalists," so that seems an edit of an earlier comment. Fair enough on both counts.
On a related note concerning Congress exceeding its enumerated powers....
Ruling on a lawsuit by two dozen states, the Federal District Court for Northern Florida ruled today that Obamacare is unconstitutional in its entirety. Round One goes to the Constitution. Next stop, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Looks like Justice was just hung on its own petard.
By repeatedly insisting that Obamacare cannot function without an individual mandate, Justice went "all in" by hoping the court would shy away from striking down the unpopular individual mandate to avoid taking down the rest of the law with it Well, Justice blundered into a judge willing to take its dare.
Apparently the Kaopectate will not work with our yodeler, so it looks like pharmacy quality plaster of paris is called for.
Shag, past experience suggests this question is probably futile, but I feel compelled to ask it anyway: Do you have any actual arguments to deploy here?
Brett, it's been well over 24 hours since my last comment of 7:38 AM yesterday aimed at you and this is your response? I have no argument with Mr. Epps, which does not mean that I agree with all he says. But I am in agreement with him in general. I appreciate Sandy's parsing of Epps' article, agreeing with him in some aspects but not all. You introduced at the very beginning the "pesky 10th amendment" which got some play here, including from me. I raised some points at my 7:38 AM comment addressed to you and I futilely await a response. In the meantime, our yodeler has continued with his constitutional diarrhea and I have been offering prescriptive measures to alleviate his condition, since Sandy's post is not aimed at the ACA (or the 10th amendment for that matter). (The reference to "pharmacy quality plaster of paris" goes back to a bout of diarrhea I had as a pre-teen with medication prescribed in the form of a white powder mixed with water that had an awful smell and taste. A few years later, I was working to fill my hollow plastic chess set with plaster of paris to give the pieces heft and as I mixed water with the plaster of paris I noted the similarity of the aroma with the white powder of a few years earlier.)
By the Bybee (*^&%$@#), what are your actual arguments deployed here other than revealing your long suffering with Wick-burn? Now I've got to keep my eye on another snow storm hitting this region to shovel that may keep me from shoveling (less purely, of course) at this Blog. But seriously, Brett, it's nice to be asked.
Iconfess to being mystified by the sentence that "I have no argument with Mr. Epps, which does not mean that I agree with all he says." Clause two suggests that one does indeed have atleast some argument with Epps, which obviously contradicts clause one. My (apparently futile) aim was to stimulate a serious discussion of a serious (and seriously flawed) article.
Sandy, your quote from my comment was followed by these words of mine: "But I am in agreement with him [Epps] in general. I appreciate Sandy's parsing of Epps' article, agreeing with him in some aspects but not all." I agree with you that Epps' article is serious; but I disagree with you that it is "seriously flawed." If I argued about everything I disagreed with, that wouldn't leave time for more reading and writing and whatever else I do (besides shoveling snow). Perhaps Epps' adaptation of this essay from his work in progress left out some steps (or footnotes) for reasons of space limitations that might have been more edifying. That's a problem that many writers have with condensing their thoughts. So I would give Epps a little slack, just as I give you and other posters at this Blog and other blogs a little slack - as long as you're going in the proper direction.
While Sandy agrees with Epps "takedown" of Justice Scalia, he failed to note (with an update?) Epps' prescience with this:
"Federal District Judge Roger Vinson of Florida, who is hearing a challenge to the new healthcare program, recently cast doubt on its constitutionality in an opinion that cited, among other things, a a Wall Street Journal op-ed as its 'authority.'" Epps' article (as well as Sandy's post) was published prior to Vinson's decision declaring the ACA unconstitutional in its entirety. Jack Balkin and other posters on this Blog have challenged Vinson's decision with vigor (although they do not provide for comments). Later on, Epps takes on originalists. Epps doesn't seem to believe that the Constitution is lost or that Lochner should be revived. Maybe in his book he will address undemocratic portions of the Constitution in the manner of Sandy (and others before Sandy). For the here and now, we've got a Constitution to deal with and Epps is challenging efforts of the right to highjack it, perhaps tacking a bit here and there to Sandy's dismay, but going in the proper [I'm deliberately avoiding "right"] direction.
Shag, I've scarcely been quiet about my opinion that neither side in the recent 2nd amendment rulings were particularly originalist in their reasoning. (Even as both took care to adopt a patina of originalism, given the high public salience of the cases it was necessary to preserve the Court's legitimacy.) Did I really have to go over that yet again?
Brett, I'm quite familiar with your simplistic originalism and your views on Heller and McDonald v. Chicago failures to see originalism through your wrong end of the telescope. But you made a claim noted in my 7:38 AM comment about what "subsequent history" has shown and I asked for a cite (suggesting Heller and McDonald). "Subsequent history" is a tad too general and perhaps even oxymoronic for purposes of your claim. Your simplistic originalism just doesn't cut it constitutionally. Perhaps you are in step with Justice Thomas, but as both Profs. Lloyd and Rosenthal point out in their article, Thomas is not always an originalist. (I trust you read these articles. Here's another recent article I'll be reading while snowbound today: Dale E. Ho's "Dodging a Bullet: McDonald v. City of Chicago and the Limits of Progressive Originalism" available at SSRN:
http://ssrn.com/abstract=1744147 A link is available at The Originalism Blog.) By the Bybee ($^*%&#@), Brett, did you consult a Webster's of 1791 for definitions of "superfluous" and "redundant"?
I have now read Epps’ article and find my original surmise confirmed. This is a blatantly political piece-- what else would you call something that ends by exhorting “ordinary Americans” to “take back” the Constitution from “far right ideologues” like Justice Scalia? Epps uses the views of a few fringe figures to stereotype and discredit everyone who disagrees with Epps’ approach to constitutional interpretation. Interestingly, this is the same technique used by "demagogue" Glenn Beck, although even Beck might not go so far as to find relevant the racial makeup of the town where some obscure organization is headquartered.
I am not sure why Professor Levinson feels the need to treat this article as if it were an intellectually serious discussion of anything. Of course, he has also started to respond to Shag’s comments, which suggests the need for a vacation. By the Bybee (by gosh, that does become funnier when it is repeated for the millionth time!), Judge Vinson’s opinion seems to have unhinged most of the commentariat at Balkinization. So far they have accused him of everything but establishing death panels, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see that next.
Surprise, surprise! mls commented at 9:41 AM (3rd thread comment) on Sandy's post on Epps' article without having read the latter. Now that he has read Epps' article, he pats himself on the back with his "original surmise confirmed." (Go back and read his earlier comment and attempt to identify his surmise.) mls' attempt to connect Epps with Glenn Beck's methods is shallow, revealing mls' not very subtle political bent.
By the Bybee (&*%^#$@), I trust mls will enjoy the vacation he obviously needs. mls' closing paragraph suggests he hasn't read with care the commentariat of Jack Balkin et al on Judge Vinson's decision. Perhaps mls has been too busy salivating over Vinson's tea party reference in his decision. And as to originalism, perhaps mls walks in lockstep with Brett's simplistic version. In any event, mls is tagged now for shooting first and reading later.
MLS:
Vinson's opinion threatens the progressive assumption that the courts had interpreted away any semblance of a Congress of enumerated powers, allowing Congress to enact anything that did not infringe a favored individual right. Vinson's opinion is really quite limited and makes two points: 1) Congress may not use the CC to compel people to buy goods and services. 2) As a matter of appellate strategy, it is unwise to play chicken with the courts by repeatedly insisting that the weakest part of your legislation is vital to function of the whole and intentionally leave out a severance provision. It would be karmic justice if the overriding arrogance of a government that ignored the will of the voters in enacting Obamacare was also the basis for striking down the entire provision.
Shag- you can identify my surmise by reading the sentence with the words "I imagine" in it.
As for your other comments, that's what I get for heckling Don Rickles. . .
This, then, is mls' surmise:
"Epps is, I imagine, trying to develop a conception of the Constitution which, if accepted, would justify the political outcomes that he holds dear." That of course is mls' imagination, in the form of a surmise (mls' chosen word) or just a guess. (Maybe mls was inspired by the Beatles' "Imagine.") Well, in his own imagination mls made a lucky guess. How prescient. Perhaps mls has a conception of the Constitution that is purely apolitical. Of course, that would be a rarity in this political age, especially with SCOTUS 5-4s galore (Bush v. Gore, Citizens United, since the turn of the 21st century). But maybe mls will reveal to us his conception (perhaps by walking in lockstep with Brett?). While the word politics is not specified in the Constitution (or judicial review or supremacy), clearly politics emerged fairly soon including via Justice Marshall post Jefferson's defeat of Adams in interpreting and construing the Constitution. Politics cannot be ignored when it comes to the Constitution. Maybe mls has no political outcomes that he holds dear, the sign of a truly self-made libertarian. By the Bybee (*%&^$#@), have you heard of George Carlin?
Sandy:
Any comment on the Obama Administration's decision to ignore the Vinson decision and plans to continue to implement the law found unconstitutional?
If Sandy responds to our yodeler's request, I trust that Sandy will also comment on "karmic justice" earlier referenced by our yodeler on this same topic. Of course, I am aware that the Constitution makes no reference to "karmic justice." Does it involve being forced to eat broccoli?
Bush 43 appointed Judge Vinson to the bench. Bush 43's father, Bush 41, has hated broccoli all his life. Bush 43's invasion of Iraq in 2003, it is said, was attributed in part to Saddam's order for the assassination of Bush 41 because of his earlier invasion of Iraq. "Six degrees of Kevin Bacon" comes to mind. Something is not Kosher. [Recycled comment from another blog.]
I am not suggesting that Sandy stalk Epps but before Sandy responds to our yodeler's request, he might first wish to read Epps' 2/2/11 article "The Vinson Ruling and the Strange Nature of American Judicial Review." (Epps points out that Article III of the Constitution does not specifically provide for judicial review - or judicial supremacy, for that matter.)
I have been searching, unsuccessfully so far, for Epps responses to Sandy's critique. (A little help, please.) In the course of this search, I accessed Epps' Jan/Feb 2009 The Atlantic article "The Founders' Great Mistake" dealing with the imperial presidency as extended by George W. Bush, with some thoughts for amending Article II of the Constitution. Perhaps Epps and Sandy have more in common than not. Of course, the challenge is with amendment. Consider how tumultuous a Constitutional Convention would be in the current political climate (that is well beyond warming, with the tea pot spouting steam).
I'm a big fan of Epps' Atlantic article on the Framers' mistakes. What I was criticizing in his Nation piece was the absence of that kind of critical edge in favor of assurances that liberals "love" the Constitution as much as the Tea Party does. As I wrote, I think is important that "we" get over that infatuation.
Today's NYT editorial "Politics and the Court" that focuses upon recent Justices Scalia and Thomas doings includes this:
"Constitutional law is political. It results from choices about concerns of government that political philosophers ponder, like liberty and property. When the court deals with major issues of social policy, the law it shapes is the most inescapably political." It's a shame we don't have a Finley Peter Dunne and his Mr. Dooley around to constantly remind us of this but with wit and charm. What might Mr. Dooley have said about the back and forths on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare? And what might Mr. Dooley have said about the "Tea Totaling Party"? Back in the fall of 1952, I asked my ConLaw Prof. Thomas Reed Powell how he thought the Supreme Court might rule on a particular issue (it had to do with baseball) working its way through the courts. He responded: "I don't know. I stopped years ago trying to figure out what those bozos will do." And he knew well personally and professionally several of those then serving. Wikipedia has a nice feature on Dunne that includes some of his and Mr. Dooley's memorable quotes to help put the present in perspective.
The NYT editorial referred to in my preceding comment does not identify Justice Thomas' wife by name in making reference to his " ... not disclosing his wife’s income from conservative groups ... " over a period of six years. Perhaps this editorial was written prior to disclosures yesterday at several websites that identify his wife's availability, through her firm, as a lobbyist for certain Republican causes, although she or her firm may not be "registered" as such. Mr. Dooley in that no Tea Totaling bar in "heaven" might be discussing (with his friend Mark Twain) how potential political "pilla" talk may impact judicial views.
It is "political" down to the justices being appointed by political actors. The range of cases where this is a deciding factor is sometimes exaggerated. As is how.
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Thus, in Gonzalez v. Raich, many justices on both sides supported a policy that they very well might have voted differently if given their druthers. Scalia never said abortion is itself unconstitutional. Lawyers Drugs and Money Blog had a good post (with a reference to an article by Mark Graber) on this subject yesterday or the day before.
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Books by Balkinization Bloggers Linda C. McClain and Aziza Ahmed, The Routledge Companion to Gender and COVID-19 (Routledge, 2024) David Pozen, The Constitution of the War on Drugs (Oxford University Press, 2024) Jack M. Balkin, Memory and Authority: The Uses of History in Constitutional Interpretation (Yale University Press, 2024) Mark A. Graber, Punish Treason, Reward Loyalty: The Forgotten Goals of Constitutional Reform after the Civil War (University of Kansas Press, 2023) Jack M. Balkin, What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Most Controversial Decision - Revised Edition (NYU Press, 2023) Andrew Koppelman, Burning Down the House: How Libertarian Philosophy Was Corrupted by Delusion and Greed (St. Martin’s Press, 2022) Gerard N. Magliocca, Washington's Heir: The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington (Oxford University Press, 2022) Joseph Fishkin and William E. Forbath, The Anti-Oligarchy Constitution: Reconstructing the Economic Foundations of American Democracy (Harvard University Press, 2022) Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugaric, Power to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populism (Oxford University Press 2021). Mark Philip Bradley and Mary L. Dudziak, eds., Making the Forever War: Marilyn B. Young on the Culture and Politics of American Militarism Culture and Politics in the Cold War and Beyond (University of Massachusetts Press, 2021). Jack M. Balkin, What Obergefell v. Hodges Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Same-Sex Marriage Decision (Yale University Press, 2020) Frank Pasquale, New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI (Belknap Press, 2020) Jack M. Balkin, The Cycles of Constitutional Time (Oxford University Press, 2020) Mark Tushnet, Taking Back the Constitution: Activist Judges and the Next Age of American Law (Yale University Press 2020). Andrew Koppelman, Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty?: The Unnecessary Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2020) Ezekiel J Emanuel and Abbe R. Gluck, The Trillion Dollar Revolution: How the Affordable Care Act Transformed Politics, Law, and Health Care in America (PublicAffairs, 2020) Linda C. McClain, Who's the Bigot?: Learning from Conflicts over Marriage and Civil Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2020) Sanford Levinson and Jack M. Balkin, Democracy and Dysfunction (University of Chicago Press, 2019) Sanford Levinson, Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (Duke University Press 2018) Mark A. Graber, Sanford Levinson, and Mark Tushnet, eds., Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? (Oxford University Press 2018) Gerard Magliocca, The Heart of the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights became the Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press, 2018) Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today (Peachtree Publishers, 2017) Brian Z. Tamanaha, A Realistic Theory of Law (Cambridge University Press 2017) Sanford Levinson, Nullification and Secession in Modern Constitutional Thought (University Press of Kansas 2016) Sanford Levinson, An Argument Open to All: Reading The Federalist in the 21st Century (Yale University Press 2015) Stephen M. Griffin, Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform (University Press of Kansas, 2015) Frank Pasquale, The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press, 2015) Bruce Ackerman, We the People, Volume 3: The Civil Rights Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2014) Balkinization Symposium on We the People, Volume 3: The Civil Rights Revolution Joseph Fishkin, Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity (Oxford University Press, 2014) Mark A. Graber, A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press, 2013) John Mikhail, Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls' Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment (Cambridge University Press, 2013) Gerard N. Magliocca, American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment (New York University Press, 2013) Stephen M. Griffin, Long Wars and the Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2013) Andrew Koppelman, The Tough Luck Constitution and the Assault on Health Care Reform (Oxford University Press, 2013) James E. Fleming and Linda C. McClain, Ordered Liberty: Rights, Responsibilities, and Virtues (Harvard University Press, 2013) Balkinization Symposium on Ordered Liberty: Rights, Responsibilities, and Virtues Andrew Koppelman, Defending American Religious Neutrality (Harvard University Press, 2013) Brian Z. Tamanaha, Failing Law Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2012) Sanford Levinson, Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2012) Linda C. McClain and Joanna L. Grossman, Gender Equality: Dimensions of Women's Equal Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Mary Dudziak, War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences (Oxford University Press, 2012) Jack M. Balkin, Living Originalism (Harvard University Press, 2011) Jason Mazzone, Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law (Stanford University Press, 2011) Richard W. Garnett and Andrew Koppelman, First Amendment Stories, (Foundation Press 2011) Jack M. Balkin, Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World (Harvard University Press, 2011) Gerard Magliocca, The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan: Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash (Yale University Press, 2011) Bernard Harcourt, The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Harvard University Press, 2010) Bruce Ackerman, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic (Harvard University Press, 2010) Balkinization Symposium on The Decline and Fall of the American Republic Ian Ayres. Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done (Bantam Books, 2010) Mark Tushnet, Why the Constitution Matters (Yale University Press 2010) Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff: Lifecycle Investing: A New, Safe, and Audacious Way to Improve the Performance of Your Retirement Portfolio (Basic Books, 2010) Jack M. Balkin, The Laws of Change: I Ching and the Philosophy of Life (2d Edition, Sybil Creek Press 2009) Brian Z. Tamanaha, Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide: The Role of Politics in Judging (Princeton University Press 2009) Andrew Koppelman and Tobias Barrington Wolff, A Right to Discriminate?: How the Case of Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale Warped the Law of Free Association (Yale University Press 2009) Jack M. Balkin and Reva B. Siegel, The Constitution in 2020 (Oxford University Press 2009) Heather K. Gerken, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System Is Failing and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press 2009) Mary Dudziak, Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey (Oxford University Press 2008) David Luban, Legal Ethics and Human Dignity (Cambridge Univ. Press 2007) Ian Ayres, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart (Bantam 2007) Jack M. Balkin, James Grimmelmann, Eddan Katz, Nimrod Kozlovski, Shlomit Wagman and Tal Zarsky, eds., Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment (N.Y.U. Press 2007) Jack M. Balkin and Beth Simone Noveck, The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (N.Y.U. Press 2006) Andrew Koppelman, Same Sex, Different States: When Same-Sex Marriages Cross State Lines (Yale University Press 2006) Brian Tamanaha, Law as a Means to an End (Cambridge University Press 2006) Sanford Levinson, Our Undemocratic Constitution (Oxford University Press 2006) Mark Graber, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (Cambridge University Press 2006) Jack M. Balkin, ed., What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said (N.Y.U. Press 2005) Sanford Levinson, ed., Torture: A Collection (Oxford University Press 2004) Balkin.com homepage Bibliography Conlaw.net Cultural Software Writings Opeds The Information Society Project BrownvBoard.com Useful Links Syllabi and Exams |