John O. McGinnis

John O. McGinnis is the George C. Dix Professor in Constitutional Law at Northwestern University. His book Accelerating Democracy was published by Princeton University Press in 2012. McGinnis is also the coauthor with Mike Rappaport of Originalism and the Good Constitution published by Harvard University Press in 2013 . He is a graduate of Harvard College, Balliol College, Oxford, and Harvard Law School. He has published in leading law reviews, including the Harvard, Chicago, and Stanford Law Reviews and the Yale Law Journal, and in journals of opinion, including National Affairs and National Review.

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Why Law Students Need to Learn More about Originalism

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Law is a professional discipline and students should be prepared for the world as it is rather than what their professors fantasize it could be.

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Gordon Wood’s Reflections on the Constitution and Slavery

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Many historians today tell a dismal tale of woe about our Founding, but Wood sees it whole with defects that do not blot out its real virtues.

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The Professors’ Letter Against Kavanaugh Undermines the Legal Academy

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Excerpt from the "Open Letter to the United States Senate from Law Professors Around the Country"
Law professors talk a lot about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court but they should guard their own legitimacy as well.

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Originalism Contributes to Legal Stability as Much as Precedent

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A legal world that promoted originalism would generate greater stability.

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How Our Confirmation Wars Resemble the English Civil War

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As with the English Civil War, our own divides will not be resolved intellectually but through politics.

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Originalist Rules of Precedent

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Originalism helps maintain the norm that the Court should follow precedent when there are truly enormous costs of discarding it.

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If the Supreme Court Is Simply Partisan, Eliminate Judical Review

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U.S. Supreme Court chambers (stock_photo_world / Shutterstock.com).
If the Court is as partisan as David Leonhardt thinks, his remedies are useless or counterproductive.

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How Originalism Integrates Precedent, Part 2

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A constitution that puts judge-made law first will be an increasingly unoriginalist constitution as precedent is piled on precedent.

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How Originalism Integrates Precedent, Part I

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Unlike the modalities approach, original methods originalism can provide a disciplined framework for interpretation.

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Social Media Suggests a Deeper Threat to Democracy Than Russia: Us

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Social media reveals little about democracy that a serious student did not already know, but the inanity is so relentless now that it is hard to ignore.

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