Just So

Though not particularly known as a legal commentator- or, at least, as a specialist in that area- Jonah Goldberg has a piece up on consitutional law and the contradictions shown by some living consitutionalists during the NSA wiretaps controversy. Goldberg attacks the ACLU, among other groups, for construing the Consitution with great flexibility in so many areas but advocating a rigid view of presidential war powers. I think his reasoning is somewhat inelegant, and perhaps incorrect, in places, but his conclusion is nicely stated:

Long before the concept of a living Constitution was hatched, the authors of the original version — as well as the courts interpreting it — understood that the executive branch has the authority and flexibility to conduct foreign policy and wage war. Terrorists may be criminals, but they aren’t merely criminals. They’re waging war against us and doing so in ways never imagined by the founders. They don’t want territory or treaties, and they don’t use armies and cannons. They want to make our own technology and freedoms into weapons they can use against us.

And so here is the real absurdity of the “living Constitution” school. Where the Constitution is supposed to be inert, they want it alive and mutating. But where the Constitution was intended to be flexible, complete intellectual rigor mortis has set in.

We're Back...

Its been an interesting, stimulating, and ... eventful summer, but for better and for worse we're back to school here at the good old College of Law. One of the "better" implications of that formulation, hopefully, is the resurrection of this blog.

Right now, Semper Liberi has both a lot to cover and not much to cover. There are still a lot of cases from last year's SCOTUS term that this blog hasn't covered yet and which certainly deserve coverage (Hamdan not least among them, of course).  And, as always, there's tons of great scholarly material and commentary floating around out there that merits attention here.  However, until the first Monday in October rolls around there will probably be fairly few legal events that will require immediate discussion, at least for the purposes of this blog.  That should allow some time for the commentators  (read mostly, but hopefully not exclusively, me) to catch up somewhat.

The bottom line regarding the blog, I suppose, is that we'll see how it goes as it goes. Thanks for your patience and readership.

Brian

P.S.

I also have to extend a special thanks to all those who wished me well during the "unpleasantness" of the spring / first half of summer.  Fortunately,  I have good reason to think that those matters are now permanently in the past .  Getting back to the practice and (now) the study of law has been the  -aside from the above mentioned expressions of concern-  the best medicine.