Balkinization: Gratitude, and a Reply in Two Parts
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
Today the Balkinization blog features my reflections at the end of its seven-scholar symposium on my new book The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power. You can find my short essay at the link below.
Many thanks to the participants.
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/grat...
25.07.2025 15:21 — 👍 11 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 1
The Rise of the Imperial Presidency
The once-obscure idea of a unitary executive is now central to debates over presidential power.
🚨Tuesday, Aug. 5 — Everything you need to know about the "Unitary Executive Theory" that's underwriting our new era of presidential lawlessness.
RSVP today 👇🏻 to get the link: brennan.swoogo.com/unitaryexecu...
@brennancenter.org @janemanners.bsky.social @jdmortenson.bsky.social @wuc3.bsky.social
25.07.2025 19:13 — 👍 29 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 1
27.07.2025 14:35 — 👍 476 🔁 47 💬 15 📌 3
So thrilled to see @jgienapp.bsky.social's important book on this phenomenal list! Congrats to all! 🎉
28.07.2025 16:27 — 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
Thanks!
28.07.2025 16:25 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A very informative book. Well-deserved recognition.
28.07.2025 16:22 — 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0
Thanks so much!
28.07.2025 16:25 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Does Good Originalism Need Good History?
One might think that originalism by definition is largely about history. After all, what does it mean to be "originalist" if not to be concerned prima
Interesting how originalists try to avoid historians' critiques. This, to me, is no more persuasive than the others. 'History' is what happened & our interpretations of it--you can't have a law of the past that isn't fundamentally yoked to trying to get that right.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
23.07.2025 15:56 — 👍 119 🔁 22 💬 11 📌 4
Balkinization: Why Did the Framers Enumerate Congressional Powers?
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
The final contribution to the Balkinization symposium on my new book *The Oldest Constitutional Question* is by Prof. John Mikhail of Georgetown. You can find it here:
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/why-...
@johnmikhail.bsky.social
Sometime soon, I'll post a response to all the symposium essays.
21.07.2025 00:51 — 👍 11 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 1
This only makes me more excited. 😉
17.07.2025 05:38 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Balkinization: Does Anybody Else Suffer from Enumerationism?
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
Today's contribution to the Balkinization symposium on my new book, The Oldest Constitutional Question, is by Penn's William Ewald, who writes about contrasts with the British and German constitutional systems. You can find Professor Ewald's essay here:
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/does...
12.07.2025 15:18 — 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
Balkinization: Will Richard Primus Get the Readership He Deserves (and the Country Needs)?
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
The Balkinization blog has now posted commentary from Prof. Sandy Levinson (of the University of Texas) about my new book, The Oldest Constitutional Question. You can find Levinson's commentary at the link below.
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/will...
10.07.2025 17:02 — 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0
Symposium on Enumerated Powers
Christina D. Ponsa-Kraus reviews my book
This week on the Balkinization blog, several excellent scholars will post essays reacting to my new book about enumerated powers. I'm honored by their engagement.
The first essay, by Prof. Christina Ponsa-Kraus of Columbia, is linked below.
open.substack.com/pub/richardp...
09.07.2025 19:46 — 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Here is my essay, "The Many Meanings of Enumeration," on Richard Primus's important new book, *The Oldest Constitutional Question: Enumeration and Federal Power*, as part of the symposium Balkinization is hosting on it.
12.07.2025 19:57 — 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Terrific book. A new way to think about an issue I thought I had a good handle on. Essential reading from @jgienapp.bsky.social
12.07.2025 15:49 — 👍 14 🔁 5 💬 1 📌 0
Thanks so much Mary! Means a lot coming from you.
12.07.2025 19:53 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
A book: Jonathan Gienapp, Against Constitutional Originalism: A Historical Critique," with a blurb from Cass Sunstein: "Gienapp's book comes as a thunderclapp."
Against Constitutional Originalism by @jgienapp.bsky.social is as accessible as it is important, which can rarely be said about a work of Constitutional theory and interpretation. Should be great for course use in law, poli sci, and history.
yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300...
12.07.2025 15:47 — 👍 224 🔁 50 💬 9 📌 3
Balkinization: The Many Meanings of Enumeration
A group blog on constitutional law, theory, and politics
Today's contribution to the Balkinization blog's symposium on my new book The Oldest Constitutional Question is by Prof. Jonathan Gienapp of Stanford. My thanks to Prof. Gienapp; you can find his contribution at the link below.
balkin.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-...
@jgienapp.bsky.social
11.07.2025 21:24 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 1
Congrats! And I like the reading selections. 😉
25.06.2025 17:31 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Great! Glad you’re coming. We’ll hangout!
06.06.2025 17:30 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
I’m so excited to announce that my book was published today! The book retells the life of Charles Sumner, an abolitionist senator who co-framed the Reconstruction Amendments. I wrote this book with my blood, sweat & tears as a student at Yale Law School. (1/x)
03.06.2025 22:12 — 👍 1500 🔁 232 💬 65 📌 48
Thank you. And well said!
27.05.2025 23:59 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
That's an important question. He might have felt like he was "hacking away," but he still had a smooth swing, and it was a thing of beauty when he connected.
I never mastered a slice backhand. Was too eager to rip it crosscourt.
13.05.2025 20:50 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
But did John tell you about his sweet swing? Always so modest…
Once upon a time, I also played a lot of tennis. Had a solid two-hand backhand.
13.05.2025 05:32 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Subject to the Jurisdiction Thereof: The Indian Law Context
<p><span>Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment provides that “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are
Trump & his lawyers rely on the 14th Amendment's treatment of Native people to redefine birthright citizenship. In our Essay coming out in the NYU Law Review Online, Greg Ablavsky & I show how wrong that argument is. papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
19.04.2025 13:02 — 👍 421 🔁 174 💬 10 📌 11
Thank you! 🙏🏻
06.05.2025 21:36 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
An earlier thread on the book collecting various events and appearances related to it.
bsky.app/profile/jgie...
06.05.2025 21:00 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
assoc prof at uic
Indefensible Spaces: Policing and the Struggle for Housing is available at https://www.ucpress.edu/books/indefensible-spaces/paper
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Freelance writer and editor. Formerly of The Atlantic, Boston Review. Copy chief at Columbia Magazine.
UAlbany, SUNY Assistant Professor of American Politics. Researching Black Politics, Distrust, and Neighborhood Institutions.
law prof
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Law professor. A skeptic, not a cynic. https://www.stetson.edu/law/faculty/home/james-fox.php
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📌 IU-McKinney Associate Professor of Law 🥂
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Associate Professor, Northeastern University School of Law
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Professor, UCLA Law; Director, http://SafeguardingDemocracyProject.org; 2020 CNN, 2024 NBC/MSNBC Election Law Analyst; electionlawblog.org
Associate Professor, Temple University School of Law. I post about things that interest me, some of which are about law. I also made a record once, which was a fun thing to do: https://stingpainindex.bandcamp.com/album/songs-about-fracking
Assistant Prof @ChicagoKentLaw. Constitutional litigator. Torts, Civ Pro, Health Law, § 1983. Current projects: right to travel, police funding, food taxes.
I’m an editor, and some other stuff too. Senior Publisher at Bloomsbury.
Historian. Author of Bank Notes and Shinplasters: The Rage for Paper Money in the Early Republic. Editor: commonplace.online. joshuargreenberg.com
PhD. Secondary school teacher. Historian of New England, African American history, queer history, Quakers, abolition, and whaling. Bulldog dad of two (Imani and Adlai).
