Restraining Arizona, Unleashing the President

When the Obama administration decided that it had no interest in preventing the movement of undocumented aliens from Mexico into the southwest United States, the State of Arizona decided to take matters into its own hands. Based on a novel theory of constitutional law, namely, that if a state is unhappy with the manner in which federal law is being ...


Hate Is Not a Crime

When openly gay college student Matthew Shepard was targeted, tortured and murdered in 1998 the story made national headlines. Soon after, MTV sent a camera crew down to Charleston, South Carolina searching for a redneck or two who ...

The Devil’s Advocate

Authors of serious books seldom have cause to celebrate, but Larry Stratton and I have two reasons to open the champagne. Crown Publishing, a division of Random House, has announced a second printing of the second edition of The Tyranny ...

Original Sinner

[Editor’s note: see also rounds 1-4 of Takimag’s increasingly acrimonious debate on originalism, interpretation, and whether the Constitution actually means anything at all. Austin Bramwell, “Original Sins”; ...

They Really Meant It

[Editor’s note: see also rounds 1-3 of our debate on originalism, interpretation, and whether the Constitution actually means anything. Austin Bramwell, “Original Sins”; Kevin R. C. Gutzman, “The Genuine ...

Best of Intentions

I’m sorry, but Kevin Gutzman is still totally wrong about the Constitution. His response to my article sends up a flurry of errors and misconceptions but leaves my critique of his work not only undisturbed but unaddressed. I am ...

The Genuine Article

Austin Bramwell says that I argue, "€œthe Constitution grants the Federal government [sic] a handful of limited powers, but leaves the states free to govern as they like."€ He adds that I assert, "€œnobody who actually reads the ...

Original Sins

I"€™m sorry, but Kevin Gutzman is totally wrong about the Constitution. In his books and many online articles, Gutzman argues that the Constitution grants the Federal government a handful of limited powers, but leaves the states free ...

Phony Originalism

Since the days of Ronald Reagan and Edmund Meese, the Republican Party's position has been that judges should be bound by the people's understanding of a particular constitutional provision at the time they ratified it.  This ...

Demand Justice for WASPs!

When Republicans were warned not to give Sonia Sotomayor the drubbing Democrats gave Robert Bork and Sam Alito—lest they be perceived as sexist and racist by women and Hispanics—the threat was credible, for it underscored a ...


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