Essays
Judgment / August 18, 2026
Most people think originalism is the belief that we should govern ourselves by the private intentions of long-dead men. That's a caricature. Originalism...
1 min read
The Founders didn't fear implied means. They feared implied purposes. We spend far too much time arguing about whether the Constitution allows "implied...
In a constitutional republic, elections are not the purpose of government. Liberty under law is. We hold elections to select representatives whose power is...
There is a strange habit in modern political talk of invoking the social contract as if it were a mystical force that requires you to accept whatever the...
Every few years, Americans repeat the same ritual. A new president signs a stack of executive orders. The other party files suit. Cable panels erupt. Legal...
We have a sloppy habit in American political debate: we use authoritarian and totalitarian as if they were synonyms. We call every heavy-handed government...
Here is the uncomfortable truth almost no one in Washington wants to discuss: the greatest threat to Article V of the United States Constitution is not a...
Somewhere along the way, American politics convinced itself that the only real problem with pure majority rule is that it might harm minority rights. That...
Every off-year election brings the same complaint. Turnout drops, pundits wring their hands, and the proposed solutions are always the same: automatic voter...
Before we go any further, the word itself needs to be cleared up. When I talk about liberalism here, I mean the tradition of the American Founding. I mean...