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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.

July 15, 2019|

Originalism, the U.S. Constitution, and the Continuity of Fusionism

by John O. McGinnis|2 Comments

In response to: Is Legal Conservatism as Accomplished as It Thinks It Is?

Leonard Leo, executive vice president of the Federalist Society, with Supreme Court Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, November 16, 2017. (AP / Sait Serkan Gurbuz)

And in any case, Merriam does not identify a theory that would deliver better results than those delivered by originalism.

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Originalism: A Unitarian Church for the Legal Profession?

by Michael S. Greve

The irony: that legal conservatism seems to have triumphed now, at a moment when the political conditions that initially spurred it have ceased to obtain.

Abandoning Originalism Wouldn’t Be Very Conservative

by Mike Rappaport

Some conservatives are unhappy with modern originalism; the best path for them is not to abandon it but to promote a more conservative version.

July 11, 2019|elites, Federal Reserve, Independence, Supreme Court

The “Independence” of the Court and the Fed

by John O. McGinnis|Leave a Comment

U.S. Supreme Court (Gary Blakeley/Shutterstock.com).

Ordinary politics is unlikely to dramatically change the behavior of the Supreme Court or the Federal Reserve from year to year.

July 3, 2019|Aristocracy, elites, Federal Reserve, Supreme Court

The Court and the Fed: Our Own Aristocratic Element

by John O. McGinnis|Leave a Comment

Federal Reserve building, Washington DC (Orhan Cam/Shutterstock.com)

Most modern capitalist societies have both independent central banks and independent constitutional courts—and have them for similar reasons.

June 27, 2019|China, extradition, Hong Kong, legitimacy, Xi Jinping

A Legitimacy Crisis for Hong Kong—and China

by John O. McGinnis|1 Comment

Overhead view of massive protests against the Chinese mainland extradition policy in Hong Kong, June 16, 2019 (Lewis Tse Pui Lung / Shutterstock.com)

Concentrated power is more likely to lead to mistakes of the kind that have been made in Hong Kong, and such mistakes undermine the regime's legitimacy.

June 20, 2019|Emmanuel Macron, France, Law, machine learning

Transparency and the Law in France

by John O. McGinnis|4 Comments

French President Emmanuel Macron at a press conference, June 13, 2017 (Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com).

Judges are likely to dislike data analytics, but that is no reason to oppose them.

June 13, 2019|boycott, corporate speech, Netflix

Boycotts, Free Speech, and the Unprincipled Left

by John O. McGinnis|12 Comments

Image: sitthiphong / Shutterstock.com

It seems the height of hypocrisy for the left to approve of these boycotts while opposing the right of corporations to speak out at election time.

June 4, 2019|Citizens United v. FEC, Clarence Thomas, John Paul Stevens, Robert Bork

Stevens’ Jurisprudence of Facts Is No Substitute for One of Principle

by John O. McGinnis|4 Comments

Justice John Paul Stevens and President Barack Obama at the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award Ceremony, the White House on May 29, 2012 (Rena Schild / Shutterstock.com).

The most serious vice of this book has one related virtue: it captures the fatal flaw of Stevens' jurisprudence.

May 30, 2019|construction zone, Gary Lawson, Larry Solum, Originalism, Precedent, Randy Barnett

The Three Fault Lines of Contemporary Originalism

by John O. McGinnis|5 Comments

U.S. Constitution (Festa/Shutterstock.com)

Originalism must construct rules of precedent that mediate between the value of following the original meaning and the value of constitutional settlement.

May 21, 2019|Game of Thrones, institutions, Virtue