Harris and Kidd, eds., “The Founding Fathers and the Debate Over Religion in...
Here is a useful historical study of the “Christian nation” question, The Founding Fathers and the Debate Over Religion in Revolutionary America: A History in Documents (OUP 2011), edited by Matthew L....
View ArticleGedicks on Defending Establishment Clause Incorporation
Frederick Mark Gedicks (BYU – J. Reuben Clark Law School) has posted Establishment Clause Incorporation: A Logical, Textual, and Historical Defense. The abstract follows. Incorporation of the...
View ArticleDyer, “Natural Law and the Antislavery Constitutional Tradition”
A very interesting looking book by Justin Buckley Dyer (Missouri), which in part defends the traditional view of the relationship between natural law and opposition to slavery against recent...
View ArticleMcGinnis on Berman
Over at the Liberty Law Blog, John McGinnis (Northwestern) is doing a very interesting series on Harold Berman’s seminal two-volume history of Western law, Law and Revolution. In Law and Revolution,...
View ArticleRakove Reviews Tsesis on the Declaration of Independence
I have not read Alexander Tsesis’s new book about the Declaration of Independence. From this review by Jack Rakove, though, it appears that Professor Tsesis makes some “powerful moral claims” about...
View ArticleJohn Locke’s Constitution for the Carolinas (1669): Thoughts on “Churches”
John Locke drafted a constitution for the Carolinas in 1669, entitled, “The Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina.” His draft was never ratified, but here are some provisions relating to “churches”...
View ArticleThe Nationalist Providentialism of Justice John Marshall Harlan
In a richly detailed new article, Professors Josh Blackman (South Texas) and Brian Frye (Kentucky), together with Michael McCloskey of the Harlan Institute for Constitutional Studies, discuss the...
View ArticleMcGinnis & Rappaport, “Originalism and the Good Constitution”
The importance and influence of originalism as a theory of constitutional interpretation cannot be overstated. Originalism demands a response, and it has been uniquely successful in generating...
View ArticleLiberty Fund Podcast on The Tragedy of Religious Freedom
I’m grateful to Richard Reinsch of the excellent Law and Liberty blog (a project of The Liberty Fund) for discussing The Tragedy of Religious Freedom with me. If you are not familiar with the resources...
View ArticleCorey on Oakeshott and the Rationalism of the Early American State
Elizabeth Corey has a very interesting review of a book by Gene Callahan about the extent to which the ideas of the British political theorist, Michael Oakeshott, are consistent with some of the...
View ArticleA Column on Legislative Prayer
I have a short column up at Commonweal on Town of Greece v. Galloway (which the Supreme Court is now considering) and the general question of the constitutionality of legislative prayer.
View ArticleHair and Prison in Nineteenth Century Law
Professor Chris Green points me toward a fascinating case decided by Justice Stephen Field in 1879 when he rode circuit in the District of California–Ho Ah Kow v. Nunan–also involving hair and prison....
View ArticleNelson, “The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding”
Here’s one I will be sure to pick up–Eric Nelson’s (Harvard University) The Royalist Revolution: Monarchy and the American Founding published by Harvard University Press later this year. Perhaps not...
View ArticleRappaport on Common Law Constitutionalism
Professor Michael Rappaport has a really neat post about common law rights that are constitutionalized, and how one should interpret such rights. The post is particularly interesting for me because in...
View ArticleCommon Law Constitutionalism: The Meaning of Establishment Circa 1800
In this post, I speculated about the possibility that the meaning of “establishment” might be illuminated by the English experience of the term before the Constitution’s drafting. The idea would be to...
View ArticleGreen, “Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding”
In July, Oxford University Press will release “Inventing a Christian America: The Myth of the Religious Founding” by Steven K. Green (Williamette University, College of Law). The publisher’s...
View ArticleKleidosty, “The Concert of Civilizations”
In July, Ashgate released “The Concert of Civilizations: The Common Roots of Western and Islamic Constitutionalism,” by Jeremy Kleidosty (University of Jyväskylä, Finland). The publisher’s description...
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