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Jack Balkin

October 7, 2009
Assessing "An Activist Supreme Court"
Reviewing Packing the Court, by James MacGregor Burns, Professor Jack Balkin writes in The American Prospect:

Something is rotten in the United States today, and it's the activist Supreme Court. The rantings of Rush Limbaugh? No, this accusation comes from a proud liberal, James MacGregor Burns, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political scientist who is the author of classic works on leadership and American government. In this colorful polemic, Burns marches energetically through the history of the Supreme Court, arguing that the Court has used its authority on the side of the privileged, the propertied, and the powerful and against the interests of ordinary citizens.

Tags:
Fidelity to the Constitution, Methods of interpretation, Supreme Court, Constitutional Interpretation and Change, Jack Balkin, James MacGregor Burns, Packing the Court
September 29, 2009
Blogging and Conference on The Constitution in 2020
Starting Friday, Oct. 2, Yale Law School will host a three-day conference focusing on the recent book, The Constitution in 2020. The book was published earlier this year and edited by Yale Law School professors Jack Balkin and Reva Siegel. It includes more than a dozen essays from an array of scholars on constitutional interpretation, citizenship, civil liberties, security, religion, social welfare rights and family.
A special pre-conference discussion among some of the scheduled participants is being featured on The Constitution in 2020 blog. Some of the professors who have already posted guest items include Richard W. Garnett, Paul Horwitz and Alice Ristroph. Visit the blog frequently for additional posts and to join the discussion.

For more information on The Constitution in 2020 Conference visit here.

Tags:
Constitutional Interpretation and Change, Constitution in 2020, Jack Balkin, Reva Siegel
August 28, 2009
Torture Tab Dump
More OLC Memos: "The Office of Legal Counsel, responding to a Freedom of Information Act request, has now released a treasure trove of new memoranda discussing the Bush Administration's war on terror policies," writes Prof. Jack Balkin at Balkinization. "The highlights include memos by Jack Goldsmith telling the CIA not to do anymore waterboarding in May of 2004, and a memo by his successor at the OLC, Daniel Levin, telling the CIA they can go ahead and do it on August 6, 2004. There are also two memoranda from John Yoo arguing for the President's right to use military force at any time without congressional approval and offering CIA interrogators a good faith defense to torture."

Dick Cheney is Mad: From Christy Hardin Smith: "Why is Cheney so irate? Because bluster gets him column inches without having any real fear of direct questions of his own involvement. Why? Because that just isn't how things are done in the Beltway. No inconvenient truths that might rock your access boat."

Torture Doesn't Work, So ... Richard Haas, president of the Council of Foreign Relations, is being held to account for what he said during an interview on Morning Joe, including this line: "I really think putting this in legal channels as opposed to just the policy channels is something, just like the politics, we as a society, will regret. We need to look at all of our tools. We may reject some of these things. Let's say on balance they're not worth it. But other things we may say to do it given who we're up against."

"I'm with Jack Bauer on this one." That's the quote from Fox's Chris Wallace. Here's the clip.

More
Tags:
Executive power, Prison policy/incarceration, Separation of powers, Criminal Justice, Separation of Powers and Federalism, Christy Hardin Smith, CIA, Dick Cheney, Eric Holder, Jack Balkin, Marcy Wheeler, OLC, Torture
July 21, 2009
Yale Law School Prof. Jack Balkin On ‘Democratic Constitutionalism’
In his opening remarks during a recent ACS panel discussion of the book, The Constitution in 2020, Yale Law School Professor Jack M. Balkin explained one of its themes, "democratic constitutionalism." Balkin said the concept encompasses two ideas. "The first idea is that all three branches of government ... all play a role in enforcing our Constitution," Balkin said. "And the second idea is that when you focus just on the courts, you tend to miss this feature. And you also tend to miss the way in which court decisions actually emerge from interactions between social movements and political movements; political branches, public opinion and the judiciary. That is, if you obsessively focus on the courts you actually miss most of what is actually going on when you understand how constitutional law is made." Watch a YouTube clip of Balkin's introduction below. Video of the entire event is here. Balkin edited The Constitution in 2020 with Yale Law School Professor Reva B. Siegel. Visit The Constitution in 2020 blog for more discussion on the book and constitutional interpretation.

Tags:
Methods of interpretation, Constitutional Interpretation and Change, ACS YouTube, Constitution in 2020, Jack Balkin
July 17, 2009
Video Available: ‘The Constitution In 2020’ Panel Discussion
ACS hosted a panel discussion Tuesday at the National Press Club that focused on The Constitution In 2020, a new book released by Oxford University Press and edited by Yale Law School Professors Jack Balkin and Reva Siegel. The volume contains 27 essays about the future of the U.S. Constitution by leading scholars in the fields of constitutional and civil rights law. The ACS panel discussion took place as the Senate considered President Obama's first Supreme Court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor. The panel featured Balkin, Siegel, Walter E. Dellinger III, and Mark Tushnet, and was introduced by ACS Executive Director Caroline Fredrickson. Click here to view video of the event. Individual interviews with Balkin and Siegel, also available as podcasts, are available here.
Tags:
Fidelity to the Constitution, Methods of interpretation, Constitutional Interpretation and Change, Constitution in 2020, Jack Balkin, Reva Siegel