Yesterday voters in Colorado recalled two State Senators. One result was not a surprise, and the other is a shock. Of course the votes are Second Amendment victories for the right to arms, but more fundamentally, they are Fourteenth Amendment victories for Due Process of Law. Former State Senate President John Morse represented Colorado Springs, […]
Archive | Popular Constitutionalism
Seidman: “Let’s Give Up on [Parts of] the Constitution”
By Jonathan H. Adler on December 31, 2012 9:29 am in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Popular Constitutionalism
Georgetown’s Louis Michael Seidman, author of On Constitutional Disobedience has an NYT op-ed (noted in the comments to Orin’s open thread) calling for ignoring the Constitution — or at least those parts that he does not like. As the nation teeters at the edge of fiscal chaos, observers are reaching the conclusion that the American […]
Louisiana amendment to strengthen right to arms, on November ballot
By David Kopel on October 3, 2012 7:04 pm in Constitutional Amendments, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Elections, Guns, Militia, Popular Constitutionalism, Right to carry, State Constitutional Law
In state elections, the most important vote this November will be in Louisiana. A referendum there would significantly strengthen protection of the right to keep and bear arms in the state, and would set a very significant national precedent. Before the Civil War, the Louisiana Constitution did not mention a right to arms. The Louisiana […]
Next step: Repeal the individual mandate because it is unconstitutional
By David Kopel on June 29, 2012 7:30 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Equal Protection, Health Care, Individual Mandate, Necessary and Proper, Politics, Popular Constitutionalism, Presidency, Separation of Powers, Supreme Court, Taxes, Taxing and Spending Clause, Uncategorized
McCulloch v. Maryland had a very good day at the Supreme Court yesterday, with NFIB relying on and applying McCulloch‘s rules for when an enactment violates the Necessary and Proper Clause. What happened after the McCulloch decision also shows the next steps in battle over the individual mandate, as I suggest in an essay this morning […]
Public opinion about the National Rifle Association
In April, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that the National Rifle Association was viewed favorably by 68% of Americans, and unfavorably by 32%. Unlike most polls, the Reuters poll apparently did not allow “unsure” or “undecided” as a choice. In each of the demographics which the poll provided–Republicans, Democrats, independents, whites, and blacks–the NRA was viewed favorably […]
The Great Gun Control War of the 20th Century — And its Lessons for Gun Laws Today
By David Kopel on May 31, 2012 2:37 pm in Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Fourteenth Amendment, Guns, History, McDonald v. City of Chicago, Politics, Popular Constitutionalism, Registration, Right to carry, Supreme Court
This is the subject of my article in a forthcoming symposium issue of the Fordham Urban Law Journal. The article details the political, cultural, social, and legal battles over gun control from the 1920s to the early 21st century. Here’s the abstract: A movement to ban handguns began in the 1920s in the Northeast, led […]
Occupy Wall Street and Popular Constitutionalism
By Ilya Somin on January 20, 2012 3:44 pm in Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, First Amendment, Freedom of Speech, Popular Constitutionalism
The Occupy Wall Street movement is often seen as a left-wing counterpart to the Tea Party movement. Until recently, however, OWS has differed from the Tea Party in so far as it paid little attention to constitutional issues. By contrast, constitutional issues are a central focus of the Tea Party, which claims that the courts […]