Constitutional Law

Justice Scalia In the News

Recent Supreme Court decisions by Justice Scalia “and his fellow conservatives” indicate that after a quarter century on the federal bench “'judicial restraint’ has been dropped from Scalia’s playbook” when it involves regulatory issues at both the state and federal level, according to an article in The American Prospect.

Simon Lazarus and Harper Jean Tobin assert that the justice and his allies “appear on course to reverse generations of precedent and, with scant or no authorization from Congress, shut down all 50 states' tort law regimes insofar as they apply to medical devices, drugs, or other products regulated by the federal Food and Drug Administration.” ACS recently hosted a panel discussion on preemption and the Supreme Court.

In related news, Columbia law professor Michael C. Dorf criticized Justice Scalia’s recent attack on “the living Constitution,” noting that this terminology is “a problematic metaphor, but only because originalists like Justice Scalia either misunderstand or mischaracterize what it stands for.” ACS recently published a special issue of Advance devoted to papers presented at a symposium on "Keeping Faith with the Constitution in Changing Times."

Full post as published by ACS Blog on March 15, 2008 (boomark / email).