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Yes, economists can teach at law schools, but not constitutional law

Doug Holtz-Eakin appears to be branching out a bit from his earlier public economics insights as a McCain adviser, such as in his statements that replacing depreciation with expensing has zero revenue cost and that you can pay for $5.7 trillion in tax cuts over ten years by cutting targeted tax benefits that amount to $30 billion per year.

As the New York Times reports, he is now branching out into constitutional law, at least in the sense of reporting on McCain's apparent constitutional view that the president has unfettered discretion to wiretap Americans, at least in their international communications, no matter what any statutes say or don't say. Holtz-Eakin suggests (though in fairness one could say that he is simply reporting what McCain ostensibly thinks) that only "the ACLU and trial lawyers" disagree with this.

I have supported several economists for appointment to the NYU law faculty, but not to teach constitutional law. This does not appear to be grounds for rethinking that limitation - though, then again, the views Doug reports on constitutional law are every bit as credible as what he has been saying about tax and budget policy lately.

Full post as published by Start Making Sense on June 06, 2008 (boomark / email).