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.

|, , , ,

How Originalism Integrates Precedent, Part 2

by |7 Comments

Image: Paul/Adobe Stock Images
A constitution that puts judge-made law first will be an increasingly unoriginalist constitution as precedent is piled on precedent.

|, , , , ,

How Originalism Integrates Precedent, Part I

by |6 Comments

Brian A. Jackson/Shutterstock.com
Unlike the modalities approach, original methods originalism can provide a disciplined framework for interpretation.

|, , , , , ,

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

by |2 Comments

Pathdoc/Shutterstock.com
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.

|, , , , ,

How Bill Gates Fails to Understand International Politics

by |Leave a Comment

Bill Gates at the Elysee Palace to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, April 16, 2018 (Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com).
International agreements are often quite hard to secure, but this is especially true when achieving this requires states to accept losses.

|, , , ,

How Originalism Addresses Consequences

by |6 Comments

SNEHIT/Adobe Stock Images
Originalism may well include some consideration of consequences, but in a disciplined manner that prevents justices' values from driving the process.

|, , , ,

The Rise of Special Interests and the Decline of Mediating Institutions

by |3 Comments

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron at G8 press conference in Deauville, France on May 27, 2011 (Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com).
It is a vicious cycle: A more powerful state weakens mediating institutions and weakened mediating institutions empower the state.

|, , , , , , ,

Modern Mediating Institutions Need Greater Transparency

by |11 Comments

CURA Photography/Shutterstock.com
Many mediating institutions are in trouble today, beset by scandal from within and harassed by the state from without: but how to help them?

|, ,

The President Should Break Established Norms, But Only Bad Ones

by |11 Comments

President Donald Trump at press conference with President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in New York, September 21, 2017 (Drop of Light/Shutterstock.com).
If President Trump is going to break norms, he should at least aim to do it productively.

|, , , , , , ,

“Democracy” Cannot Unlock the Meaning of the Constitution

by |4 Comments

The U.S. Capitol building, as seen between the columns of the Supreme Court (Dan Thornberg/Shutterstock.com).
Republicanism, not democracy, might be a structural principle we can use to guide our interpretation of the Constitution.

|, , , , , ,

Originalism Encompasses Text and Structure

by |12 Comments

St. Louis, Missouri with the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in foreground (A.G. Baxter/Shutterstock.com).
At its best, originalism encompasses most of the arguments critics claim it cannot, and does justice to both the text and structure of the Constitution.

About

Law and Liberty’s focus is on the content, status, and development of law in the context of republican and limited government and the ways that liberty and law and law and liberty mutually reinforce the other. This site brings together serious debate, commentary, essays, book reviews, interviews, and educational material in a commitment to the first principles of law in a free society. Law and Liberty considers a range of foundational and contemporary legal issues, legal philosophy, and pedagogy.

© 2018 Liberty Fund, Inc.