Saving the Constitution from Lawyers: How Legal Training and Law Reviews Distort Constitutional Meaning

Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Acknowledgments......Page 11
Introduction......Page 13
Outline of the Book......Page 19
1 The Logic, and Illogic, of Law......Page 21
Lawyers as Liars?......Page 23
Thinking Like a Lawyer......Page 26
The Adversary System, Advocacy, and Truth......Page 29
Lawyering versus Scholarship......Page 34
Social Sciences and the Rules of Inquiry......Page 37
Conclusion......Page 43
2 The Law Journal Breeding Ground......Page 45
History......Page 47
Students in Charge?......Page 50
A Scholarly Enterprise?......Page 53
How the System Works......Page 56
Criticisms......Page 58
Professional Peer Review: The Academic Gold Standard......Page 61
The Problems with Student Control......Page 65
Length, Redundancy, and Footnotes......Page 68
Conclusion......Page 70
3 The Inherent Item Veto......Page 72
Colonial Precedents......Page 75
Impoundment......Page 81
What the Founders Understood about the Veto......Page 84
State Precedent?......Page 85
The “Rider” Problem......Page 86
The Bill Definition and “Omnibus” Problems......Page 89
The Presentment Clause......Page 91
The Veto as a “Revisionary” Power......Page 93
An Eviscerated Veto?......Page 96
Conclusion: Rescuing Constitutional Interpretation......Page 97
4 The Unitary Executive and the Commander-in-Chief Power......Page 102
The Unitary Executive Theory: Article II on Steroids......Page 104
The Constitutional Commander-in-Chief......Page 111
The Commander-in-Chief According to Yoo......Page 115
From Law Journal to Law......Page 117
The Bush Commander-in-Chief......Page 120
Distorting the Courts......Page 121
What Hamilton Says......Page 123
Other Cases......Page 126
A Political Document or a Legal One?......Page 133
Conclusion: Reinventing the Commander-in-Chief......Page 137
5 The Second Amendment......Page 141
The Meaning of the Second Amendment......Page 143
Supreme Court Rulings......Page 148
Other Court Rulings......Page 153
The “Individualist” Critique......Page 157
The “Right of Revolution”......Page 160
Collateral Claims and the Research Record......Page 165
Seeking Shelter under the Fourteenth Amendment......Page 172
Public Policy Consequences......Page 176
Interest-Group Involvement......Page 184
Conclusion......Page 187
6 Conclusion......Page 189
Reform......Page 191
Legal Training and Research......Page 192
Law Reviews......Page 194
Law Reviews Will Still Matter......Page 198
About the Author......Page 199
Index......Page 201