Michael Stokes Paulsen

In Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court created a constitutional right of some human beings to kill other human beings. Specifically, the Court held that the Constitution of the United States creates a substantive individual liberty to procure or perform an abortion of a human . . . . Continue Reading »

Every generation, it seems, has its paradigm-defining Supreme Court case: a decision (or series of decisions) that determines the jurisprudential ethos and frames the judicial, political, and academic debate for the next quarter century or so. A landmark case of this sort also marks an ending, . . . . Continue Reading »

The single most important event of constitutional interpretation in American history was the Civil War. The war was, of course, so much more than simply an act of constitutional interpretation. Fought from 1861 to 1865, it was the most devastating war in America’s history, resulting in the deaths . . . . Continue Reading »

The biggest cases decided by the Supreme Court in the term that ended this past July concerned, almost without exception, First Amendment liberties of expression, association, and free exercise of religion. And that is appropriate. Those of us whose views are not in accord with the current trend of . . . . Continue Reading »