The Big Stick and Its Growth Under President Obama
President Obama has been way more interventionist than Candidate Obama said he would be.
On the Newsstand:Due Process
The New Miranda Decision and Souter’s Harvard Speech
With the predictable 5-4 lineup, the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that, in order to exclude from evidence incriminating statements to the police, criminal suspects must have unambiguously invoked their right to remain silent. The case essentially asked, what constitutes a waiver of one’s Miranda rights? Does sitting silent, unresponsive, for nearly three hours, as did the suspect, Van Chester Thompkins, ... Read More
Lesson’s From Today’s “Morning Joe”
You can learn a lot by watching TV, it turns out! Here’s what I learned by watching this morning’s “Morning Joe.” First, it’s okay to be a druggie, boozing, womanizing liberal so long as you support covertly aiding the enemies of our enemies (mistaking them for our friends). This we learned from Joe Scarborough’s valedictory declaration that the recently deceased ... Read More
D.C. v. Heller and “Liberal Originalism”
In last summer’s issue, I predicted that the seemingly momentous gun-control case of D.C. v. Heller might turn out to be not such a big deal. I was mainly referring to the politics of the decision; it seemed likely to me that Heller would take gun-control off the table, so to speak, and lessen the danger that the issue poses ... Read More
Legislating from the Bench
Creating precedent for the law The term “legislating from the bench” is frequently used but rarely explained. In the 2008 presidential debates Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) promised he would not appoint judges who legislate from the bench. But as Bruce Peabody, author of Legislating from the Bench, a Definition and a Defense, told the HPR, “I don’t think we can ... Read More
How Roland Burris Helped Me Study For My Con-Law Exam
As I studied for my ConLaw final, this question popped into my head: How can people claim to be able to wring objective meaning or “original intent” out of vague phrases like “the freedom of speech,” “equal protection of the laws,” and “due process of law,” when constitutional experts can’t even agree whether or not the Senate is allowed to ... Read More
