Health Care in the Supreme Court

At the national Federalist Society site, "a single page with videos of debates our chapters have held around the country as well as scholarly papers and podcasts produced by our members."

Charter cities

"Huge numbers of people are already moving to the world’s cities, too many of which are set up to create unstable poverty. Wealthy countries spend billions per year on projects designed to reform governments, build modern utilities or teach their workers new agricultural techniques. For all the cash, there has been very little success. Sponsoring a charter city, [Paul] Romer said, may be a better (and cheaper) way to help." Who Wants to Buy Honduras?, The New York Times Magazine, May 13, 2012

The Upside-Down Constitution

The Upside-Down Constitution, by Michael S. Greve, review by Robert R. Gasaway

Reality-Challenged Philosophies of Punishment

This past fall, Robert Weisberg, the Edwin E. Huddleson, Jr. Professor of Law at Stanford University and Director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, delivered Marquette University Law School’s annual Barrock Lecture on Criminal Law. Weisberg’s article based on the Barrock Lecture will be published in the summer issue of the Marquette Law Review; this is an abridged version of that article.

Marquette Magazine, Summer 2012

The Ohio Constitution of 1803, Jefferson's Danbury Letter, and Religion in Education

The Ohio Constitution of 1803, Jefferson's Danbury Letter, and Religion in Education, by David W. Scott

Places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant

"Americans see themselves as personally vested with sovereignty, an ineluctable attribute of citizenship, and they therefore react with appropriate concern when globalistas insist that 'pooled' or 'shared' sovereignty will actually benefit them. Since most Americans already believe they have too little control over government, the notion of giving up any authority to unfamiliar peoples and governments whose tangible interests likely bear little relation to our own is decidedly unappealing." --John R. Bolton, Against the Globalistas, a review of Sovereignty or Submission: Will Americans Rule Themselves or be Ruled by Others? by John Fonte, Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2012

Engage Volume 13, Issue 1, March 2012

At the national website, this issue of Engage: The Journal of the Federalist Society Practice Groups is online.

It is now also available on the Kindle.

Gifts, Offices, and Corruption

Zephyr Teachout, in Gifts, Offices, and Corruption, 107 Nw. U. L. Rev. Colloquy 30 (2012), replies to Seth Barrett Tillman in their discussion of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 50 (2010). Teachout's paper is available for download at the Northwestern University Law Review and at the Social Science Research Network.

Here is our post on Tillman's opening statement.

More on Enough

"Sovereign credit cards also have credit limits, however, as events on trading floors and in election booths since 2009 have reminded us. Perhaps—the question will be settled in markets and elections in coming years—tax cuts do starve the beast, but only after we've approached the point where borrowing can no longer make up for the revenue not generated by taxes politicians are afraid to raise. Conservatives can take hope on this point from Matthew Yglesias's gloomy prediction that by ruling out tax increases on anyone making less than $250,000, Obama and the Democrats have made 'something approximating Ryanism inevitable.'

"Conservatives could help their cause and their country by following Congressman Ryan's lead in making clear that their goal is not to starve the beast, which implies it will die, but to come up with a diet that reconciles the welfare state's genuine needs to the food supply's limits. The historical data, some of it presented in Never Enough, show that as nations prosper their welfare states have always expanded. It's plausible for democratic electorates to decide that economic growth gives a society the leeway to direct a portion of its additional income into public programs while the rest is consumed or invested privately.

"Though the alternative path has hardly ever been taken, it is equally plausible. A democracy could conclude that a growing economy means that a welfare state with a clearly defined mission, as opposed to one where the goal posts are constantly receding as we move toward them, can be financed by spending a decreasing portion of the nation's increasing wealth. This is exactly the approach we have taken with defense spending. ..."

--William Voegeli, Enough Already

Forgotten No More

Forgotten No More, by Richard A. Epstein, review of Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly, by John D. Inazu

Political constitutionalism

"If the Constitution is being offered as the solution, it is necessary to specify what the problem is and how a revival of constitutionalism would help to fix it." --James W. Ceaser, Restoring the Constitution, Claremont Review of Books, Spring 2012

Eleventh Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture

Eleventh Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture, by Michael B. Mukasey, delivered November 11, 2011 at the Federalist Society’s 2011 National Lawyers Convention.

Minding P, S, and Qs

"Tim Groseclose, a professor of political science at UCLA, has made an earnest and impressive effort to address the central problem in deciding whether there is systematic media bias: finding an objective way of measuring bias, both an individual's and news outlet's. The first task is done by assigning to any politician, news outlet, or oneself a Political Quotient (P.Q.) based on whether you agree, disagree, or have no opinion on a policy question. The questions are those formulated by Americans for Democratic Action (ADA) to rank members of Congress. ...

"To gauge the bias of the mass media, Groseclose develops another measure, the Slant Quotient (S.Q.). This is a number that shows how often a news outlet cites one or more of some 200 think tanks. ..."

--James Q. Wilson, Measuring the Slant, review of Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind, by Tim Groseclose

P.S. Michael LaCour, "a Ph.D. candidate in political science at UCLA", posts on A Balanced News Diet After All?

"Political scientists and journalists have concluded that individuals are motivated to select media sources that match their own political views and avoid media sources that challenge their political views. However, an analysis of individuals’ actual media exposure patterns lead to conclusions about selective exposure quite different from previous research based on self-reported media exposure."

(Via W.W. at Democracy in America)