Blackstone on Subordinate Magistrates
This is my third post in a series responding to Professor Jed Shugerman’s criticisms of originalist scholarship on Blackstone and executive removal power. The first two posts described Blackstone’s general account of the king’s executive power (part 1) and...
St. George Tucker: The American Founding’s Preeminent Originalist
While many of America’s founders are justifiably famous, others have received too little attention. St. George Tucker is one. Born July 10, 1752, in Bermuda, Tucker was a militia colonel in the American Revolution, who even wrote Liberty: a Poem, on the Independence...
The Founders’ words were not “meaningless” or “vague”
A common accusation, especially from liberal academics and judges, is that many constitutional phrases are vague or meaningless. Or, as stated by former Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, they are “luminous and obscure.” Advocates of an all-powerful central...