Constitutional Commentary articles from March 2003

Constitutional Commentary archives from March 2003

How "decentralization" rationalizes oligarchy: John McGinnis and the Rehnquist Court.(response to John McGinnis, California Law Review, vol. 90, p. 485, 2002)
March 22, 2003... "Decentralization" sounds wonderfully democratic. It implies that people are becoming masters of their own destinies, freed from the oppression of distant functionaries who neither know nor care about the particulars of their lives. Strangely,...

Decentralizing constitutional provisions versus judicial oligarchy: a reply to professor Koppelman.(response to Andrew Koppelman in this issue, p. 11)
March 22, 2003... Professor Koppelman pays me the compliment of responding to my recent article. Reviving Tocqueville's America: The Rehnquist Court's Jurisprudence of Social Discovery. (1) In particular, I am grateful for his kind remark that the article is a...

The little red schoolhouse: Pierce, state monopoly of education and the politics of intolerance.(1923-1927 Oregon governor Walter M. Pierce)
March 22, 2003... If the Oregon School Law is held to be unconstitutional it is not only a possibility but almost a certainty that within a few years the great centers of population in our country will be dotted with elementary schools which instead of being red...

Mother may I? Imposing mandatory prospective rules of statutory interpretation.(response to Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Harvard Law Review, vol. 115, p. 2085, 2002)
March 22, 2003... Suppose an imperious woman announces that, henceforth, she will construe the sentences of others as completely meaningless unless each sentence is preceded by the obsequious question "Mother May I?" When this domineering woman proceeds to...

The myth of the neutral amicus: American courts and their friends, 1790-1890.
March 22, 2003... An amicus curiae ("friend of the court") is, in modern American practice, a non-party to a case who nevertheless has a strong enough interest in the case's outcome to file a brief. Common amici include the federal and state governments,...

The Federalist Papers and the bill of rights.
March 22, 2003... Of all the complaints lodged by the Antifederalists in their campaign to defeat ratification of the Constitution, the failure to attach a bill of rights to the Constitution emerged as the leading and most formidable one. (1) This omission...

The Imperial Republic: A Structural History of American Constitutionalism from the Colonial Era to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... THE IMPERIAL REPUBLIC: A STRUCTURAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN CONSTITUTIONALISM FROM THE COLONIAL ERA TO THE BEGINNING OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY. By James G. Wilson. (1) Ashgate, 2002. Pp. 273. $89.95. This very fine, thought provoking book...

Narrowing the Nation's Power: The Supreme Court Sides with the States.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... NARROWING THE NATION'S POWER: THE SUPREME COURT SIDES WITH THE STATES. By John T. Noonan, Jr. (1) University of California Press. 2002. Pp. 203. $24.95. Two hundred years ago, in 1803, the Supreme Court decided Marbury v. Madison. This...

Democracy by Decree: What Happens When Courts Run Government.(Book Review)
March 22, 2003... DEMOCRACY BY DECREE: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN COURTS RUN GOVERNMENT. By Ross Sandler (1) and David Schoenbrod. (2) Yale University Press. 2003. Pp. 288. $30.00 This is a deeply confused book. Not that the authors' stance is unclear" They have...