The Roundtable
Welcome to the Roundtable, JLPP’s online blog featuring student commentary on current cases and legal developments!
If you are interested in becoming a Staff Writer or Contributing Writer for the Roundtable, e-mail Notes Editors Kyle Reynolds (mreynolds@jd18.law.harvard.edu) or Chadwick Harper (charper@jd19.law.harvard.edu).
The Bar’s Role in Responding to Attacks on the Court – Benjamin M. Flowers
Download PDF The Bar’s Role in Responding to Attacks on the Court Benjamin M. Flowers* Recent stories portraying the Court as a corrupt institution are false. More concerning, they threaten our constitutional system. In this little essay, I hope to persuade more lawyers to say so. We are fallen creatures. Ever since Eve grabbed hold of that fruit, people have exhibited an unfortunate tendency to exceed their authority. Americans have long understood this. That is why their experiment with self-governance has flourished. The Founders, rather...
read moreThe Dual-Track Independent State Legislature Doctrine – Jack Foley
Download PDF The Dual-Track Independent State Legislature Doctrine Jack Foley* What’s in a word—especially when that word is of Constitutional import? In the pending case of Moore v. Harper,[1] the word at issue is “legislature,” and the question is how broadly it can be defined. Moore represents the Supreme Court’s attempt to determine the Constitutional merit of the so-called “independent state legislature doctrine” (ISLD),[2] which posits, in its broadest form, that state legislatures have plenary and exclusive power to set the rules for...
read moreThe Rising Importance of State Courts – Justice Gregory C. Cook
Download PDF The Rising Importance of State Courts Hon. Gregory C. Cook* The following is a lightly edited version of a speech by Justice Cook at Harvard Law School on April 1, 2023, at the Harvard Federalist Society’s annual Alumni Symposium. Justice Cook delivered these remarks while moderating a panel titled “The Rising Importance of State Courts” which also featured Judge John K. Bush of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner Jesse Panuccio. I am honored to be here today to talk...
read moreA Federal Judge Pays Respect to State Supreme Courts – Hon. John K. Bush
Download PDF A Federal Judge Pays Respect to State Supreme Courts Hon. John K. Bush* The following is a lightly edited version of a speech by Judge Bush at Harvard Law School on April 1, 2023, at the Harvard Federalist Society’s annual Alumni Symposium. Judge Bush delivered these remarks while speaking on a panel titled “The Rising Importance of State Courts,” which also featured Boies Schiller Flexner LLP partner Jesse Panuccio, and was moderated by Justice Gregory C. Cook of the Supreme Court of Alabama. Thank you to the Harvard...
read moreThe Jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito: A Symposium
JLPP: Per Curiam is proud to present The Jurisprudence of Justice Samuel Alito: A Symposium. The essays in this symposium, authored by prominent federal judges and renowned academics, focus in-depth on Justice Alito’s approaches to a wide variety of areas of law. Versions of most of these essays were presented as addresses at a March 2022 symposium convened by Professor Robert P. George and Yuval Levin, co-hosted by the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University and the American Enterprise...
read moreThe Elevation of Reality over Restraint in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization – Kevin C. Walsh
Download PDF The Elevation of Reality over Restraint in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Kevin C. Walsh* In Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization,[1] the Supreme Court buried the constitutional right to abortion that it brought forth in Roe v. Wade[2] and breathed new life into in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. Casey.[3] Justice Alito’s opinion for the Court completely overruling Roe and Casey is an outstanding jurisprudential achievement. Alito not only completely dismantled Roe and Casey before burying...
read moreJustice Alito’s Free Speech Jurisprudence – Keith E. Whittington
Download PDF Justice Alito’s Free Speech Jurisprudence Keith E. Whittington* When President George W. Bush nominated Samuel Alito to fill a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States in the fall of 2005, the right was amid a libertarian turn on freedom of speech and the First Amendment. An earlier generation of postwar conservatives had a distinctly ambivalent view about the First Amendment. While the core idea that freedom of speech is an important value and should be protected was broadly shared in the mid-twentieth century,...
read moreReason and Fiat in the Jurisprudence of Justice Alito – Adrian Vermeule
Download PDF Reason and Fiat in the Jurisprudence of Justice Alito Adrian Vermeule* How to understand the jurisprudence of a judge or Justice as a coherent whole—coherent at least in aspiration if not execution? The difficulties are formidable because many of the institutional circumstances of judging conspire to promote the ad hoc, the pragmatic in a low sense, and the decision over the reasons for the decision. Judges do not choose their own dockets, and in the case of Justices, they do so only collectively. Thus, they are to a certain...
read moreSamuel Alito’s Conservatism—Burkean and American – Adam J. White
Download PDF Samuel Alito’s Conservatism—Burkean and American Adam J. White* “I am and always have been a conservative,” Samuel Alito wrote in 1985, “and an adherent to the same philosophical views that I believe are central to this Administration.” He was referring to the Reagan Administration, where he served in the Justice Department. But as he recognized, to call oneself a “conservative” is to start an explanation, not finish one. “It is obviously very difficult to summarize a set of political views in a sentence,” he warned, before...
read moreAn Architect of Religious Liberty Doctrines for the Roberts Court – Gabrielle Girgis
Download PDF An Architect of Religious Liberty Doctrines for the Roberts Court Gabrielle Girgis* Introduction: A “Practical Originalist” on the Religion Clauses Justice Alito’s work on religion law is a hallmark of his jurisprudence. He has shaped this field more than any other sitting Justice, and perhaps even more than any other member of the Court in its history. On many issues—religious neutrality and religious exemptions, church autonomy, the Establishment Clause, and more—he has authored pioneering opinions that have refined existing...
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