Monday, May 09, 2005

Legal Affairs Debate Club - Constitution in Exile?

The Legal Affairs Debate Club - Constitution in Exile? is complete. What do you think? I think Professor Barnett was the winner.

One reason for this conclusion is the resort to use of the word "radical" by Professor Sunstein. I don't find use of the word radical to make any sense when applied to ideas about individual freedom and individual liberty that were articulated by James Madison, "father" of our Constitution and one of our Presidents. The ideas referred to as "radical" have also often appeared in the texts of the opinions written by many different Supreme Court Justices. Professor Barnett's ideas about the meaning of our written Constitution are not at all radical. It would seem to me much easier to use the label "radical" for the belief that the words of our Constitution are not actually written in our Constitution.

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