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Shapiro on Knowles on Kennedy

By Lawrence Solum

Ilya Shapiro (Cato Institute) has posted A Faint-Hearted Libertarian at Best: The Sweet Mystery of Justice Anthony Kennedy (Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, Forthcoming) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:

This is a review of Helen J. Knowles's book, 'The Tie Goes to Freedom: Justice Anthony M. Kennedy on Liberty" (Rowman & Littlefield 2009). Knowles argues that Kennedy's jurisprudence is 'modestly libertarian.' I conclude that this argument, in the limited ways Knowles makes it - with respect to free speech, equal protection, and individual dignity - is probably sound. Still, this is a small discovery considering the broad swath of Supreme Court jurisprudence. Moreover, it says little about whether Justice Kennedy is faithful to the Constitution, which is a stronger measure of libertarianism.

I'm a big fan of the Knowles book.

Full post as published by Legal Theory Blog on December 09, 2009 (boomark / email).