The New Deal Constitution—the Upside-Down Constitution under which we live—was ratified on April 25, 1938. On that day, President Roosevelt’s Supreme Court handed down back-to-back decisions in United States v. Carolene Products and in Erie Railroad v. Tompkins. The …
I’ve griped before (I think) about the Supreme Court’s less-than-stellar record on protecting the commerce of the United States. The Upside-Down Constitution contains an extended riff on the theme. As always, I am entirely right. A pair of Supreme Court …
Why are we still talking about federalism in 2012? Wasn’t it mortally wounded with the passage of the 16th and the 17th Amendments? At least, that is what I hear a lot of Conservatives moaning about. Surprisingly, then, …
This lengthy essay is adapted from a “Constitution Day” talk delivered at several universities over the past month. It attempts to understand the country’s current predicament in light of the Founder’s “constitutional moment.” Our problems are neither a matter of …
The news that Cass Sunstein returns to Harvard Law School from his position as policy chief at the Office of Management and Budget provoked a divided response. On his policy legacy, the left and right clashed, with partisans both attacking …
The idea of American exceptionalism is a strong cord within our history. This is true especially within the philosophy of conservatism. Conservatives from the Puritans to Alexander Hamilton and President Ronald Reagan have championed the philosophy that the United States …
The excesses of the modern administrative state are becoming a central issue in contemporary American political debates. From the National Labor Relations Board’s intervention in Boeing’s decision to move some of its operations to South Carolina, to the Affordable Care …
James Burnham was a literary modernist who after an experience with Trotskyite Marxism gained renown for The Managerial Revolution (1941), a study of executive centralization. Alert to the threat of totalitarian rule, Burnham joined intellectual forces with defenders of liberty …
John Samples has revisited an old controversy concerning the fundamental purpose and function of the legislative branch of the American government. In doing so, he has engaged the arguments of an older generation of conservative defenders of Congress, those who …
Congress as an institution seems deeply troubled, if not doomed. Public confidence in the institution has fallen to historic lows, at least in the history of mass polling. Meanwhile, its institutional rivals – the president and the courts – remain …
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Email