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SHOULD RACE MATTER?: UNUSUAL ANSWERS TO THE USUAL QUESTIONS. By David Boonin. (1) Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 2011. Pp. vii + 441. $99.00 (cloth), $34.99 (paper). One frequently hears that [...]

In this short article I hope to clarify three doctrines that have produced enormous confusion among lawyers, judges, and academic commentators. These are the doctrines of First Amendment overbreadth, prior [...]

The debate between originalists (of the authorially-intended-meaning variety) and their opponents usually has two strands. One strand has to do with what interpreting a text is. Originalists like me--a group [...]

When I see a book or article about the establishment clause, there are several things I want to know in order to assess it. First, what kind of approach does [...]

At Christmas, I, a lapsed Jew, attended mass with my wife, a devout Catholic, as I usually do. And, as usual, I stood when the congregation stood but did not [...]

The Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action have arrived. (1) They are dubious as constitutional law, bringing to mind what John Hart Ely said of Roe v. Wade: "it is [...]

As we mark the 200th anniversary of Marbury v. Madison, (1) it should be noted that huge forests have been levelled and tons of ink spilled in analyzing, interpreting, and [...]

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 [...]

I. THE PRINCIPLES Here are three well-settled principles of constitutional law: The Anti-Discrimination Principle. Government cannot use racial classifications, even as the most cost-effective proxies for other traits, unless using [...]

I In Employment Division, Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. Smith, the Supreme Court held that the Free Exercise Clause does not mandate religious exemptions from "generally applicable law."(1) [...]

Black college students are the targets of racial epithets from fellow students. Members of the American Nazi Party march through the heavily Jewish Chicago suburb of Skokie, wearing brownshirts and [...]

A few years ago, in an exchange with Cass Sunstein and Frederick Schauer, I criticized efforts to distinguish "high value" and "low value" speech, as the Supreme Court, Sunstein, and [...]

A bedrock assumption of almost all judicial and academic interpreters of the Constitution is that the Constitution is in large part permissive. That is, most laws or governmental actions are [...]

In On Extrajudicial Constitutional Interpretation,(1) we put forth and defended the position that the Supreme Court's interpretations of the Constitution should be taken by all other officials, judicial and non-judicial, [...]