As VC readers know, an all-star cast of constitutional legal scholars, including three Volokhians, submitted an amicus brief in NLRB v. Noel Canning. Blog posts about that brief are here (pro forma sessions), here (“recess” and “session”) and here (“happen”). That brief focuses mainly on the text of the Constitution and interpretive practice, especially early […]
Archive | Presidency
House Judiciary Committee Hearing: Take Care Clause
On Tuesday morning at 10:00am, the House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing about the President’s constitutional duty “to take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” Michael Cannon, Simon Lazarus, Jonathan Turley, and I will testify. Video here and possibly on C-SPAN. UPDATE: I will be discussing this with Greta on Fox News, Tuesday, […]
Arthur Schlesinger and the Kennedy Assassination
The events of November 1963 and their aftermath are described in Chapter 9 of my undergraduate thesis The Highbrow in American Politics: Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. and the Role of the Intellectual in Politics. In brief: Schlesinger, John Kenneth Galbraith, and most of the rest of the White House immediately leaped to the conclusion that “the radical […]
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Two Presidents, Two Suspensions
By Nick Rosenkranz on August 17, 2013 8:48 am in Constitutional Law, Executive Branch, Habeas, Health Care, Obama, Presidency, Separation of Powers
My op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal compares Obama’s suspension of the ObamaCare employer mandate with Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Both Presidents were constitutional lawyers; both Presidents unilaterally suspended the law; and both suspensions were constitutionally dubious. But what they did next could not have been more different. The op-ed is […]
Colorado Inside-Out 1973 Time Machine
By David Kopel on July 2, 2013 4:08 pm in Constitutional Amendments, Media, Politics, Presidency, Television, Voting Rights Act
This Friday, July 6, at 8 p.m. Mountain Time, is Colorado Inside-Out’s annual Time Machine episode, on Colorado Public Television, channel 12. These episodes have won three regional Emmy Awards. This year’s episode takes us to 1973, with discussions of Equal Rights Amendment ratification, political violence, the energy crisis, and Watergate. The characters are, from […]
Did the Obama Administration have a Duty to Defend DOMA?
By Ilya Somin on June 30, 2013 5:20 pm in Constitutional Theory, DOMA, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Presidency
I have a somewhat different perspective than co-blogger Todd Zywicki on the Obama administration’s decision not to defend DOMA in court. In my view, the President’s duty to uphold the Constitution supersedes any obligation he might have to defend a federal statute. Therefore, if he sincerely believes that a federal law is unconstitutional, he should […]
The Trillion Dollar Heist
Whatever else one might say about the Trillion Dollar Coin, it would certainly set the stage for the ultimate heist movie. Maybe an “American Buffalo” needs Mamet, but this would write itself. In my version, a disgruntled Treasury worker swallows the coin, then goes on a hunger strike, holding the economy hostage until his demands […]
How Syria is Iran’s route to the sea
By David Kopel on October 24, 2012 2:29 am in Counter-Terrorism Policy, Iran, Israel, National Security, Presidency, Press, Terrorism
“Syria is Iran’s only ally in the Arab world. It’s their route to the sea.” So said Mitt Romney at the Monday debate. The Associated Press, The Guardian, The Telegraph, New York, U.S. News, Brad DeLong, Rachel Maddow’s Maddowblog, Comedy Central, and The Daily Kos promptly seized the opportunity to show off their superior geographical knowledge, pointing out that Iran […]
A Libertarian Perspective on Romney vs. Obama
In recent weeks, libertarians have been debating whether there’s any good reason for us to support Romney over Obama, or vice versa. In contrast to 2008, when many libertarians endorsed Obama, few if any are making the case for him this year. There is near-universal agreement among libertarian commentators that Obama’s presidency has done more […]
Why the Presidential Debate Should Have Covered the Issue of Judicial Nominations
In this Politico post, I expanded on my recent VC post about dogs that didn’t bark during last night’s presidential debate. It was especially unfortunate that both candidates and the moderator completely ignored the issue of judicial nominations: [N]either of the candidates or the moderator even mentioned judicial nominations, even though this is one of […]
Why We Choose Presidents Based on the Wrong Issues
By Ilya Somin on October 1, 2012 9:38 pm in Democracy, Political Ignorance, Presidency, Public Opinion
In a recent Slate column, John Dickerson points out that presidential elections typically focus too much on issues the president has little control over and too little on those that he has more effect on: Nothing tests a president’s temperament like foreign affairs. Though this presidential campaign has only recently touched on the topic, the […]
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 […]
Is President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege valid?
As noted by Jonathan Adler, below, President Obama today asserted Executive Privilege for Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to comply with a document subpoena from the U.S. House Oversight Committee. The letter is here. The Committee will vote later today on a resolution to hold Holder in contempt of Congress. The Committee Report in support […]
President Obama versus the Constitution
By David Kopel on April 2, 2012 11:54 pm in Congress, Constitutional History, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Theory, Counter-Terrorism Policy, Executive Branch, Federalism, Growth of Government, Habeas, Health Care, History, Individual Mandate, Jefferson, Judicial Power, Obama, Presidency, Public Opinion, Supreme Court, Uncategorized, War on Terror
President Obama today fired his opening salvo in an unprecedented attack on the Constitution of the United States. Regarding the impending Supreme Court ruling on the health control law, the President said, “Ultimately, I’m confident that the Supreme Court will not take what would be an unprecedented, extraordinary step of overturning a law that was […]
Constitutional Cliffhangers: When Law and Politics Mix
I promised to offer today some of the “general lessons” from my new book, Constitutional Cliffhangers. I will divide them into two posts that excerpt and paraphrase the final chapter of the book. This one will deal with the way that law and politics interact when constitutional cliffhangers play out. For the cliffhangers that would […]