(By Jeff Wall, Former Clerk to Justice Thomas) Of the various powers granted to Congress by Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, none has been more central to modern federal legislation than the authority “[t]o regulate commerce . . . among the several states.” The Commerce Clause has been the basis for congressional enactments dealing with topics from child support recovery
(By Gregory E. Maggs, Professor at George Washington University and Former Clerk to Justice Thomas) This essay addresses a basic question about Justice Clarence Thomas’s originalist jurisprudence. When Justice Thomas looks for the original meaning of the Constitution, does he seek (a) the meaning intended by the Framers at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia (“original intent”), (b) the meaning as
(By Gregory E. Maggs, Professor at George Washington University and Former Clerk to Justice Thomas) The term “federalism” refers to the division of power between the federal government and the state governments. A fundamental principle of federalism, as expressed most clearly in the Tenth Amendment, is that the Constitution confers certain limited legislative powers on Congress and reserves all other
(By John Adams, Partner at McGuire Woods LLP and Former Law Clerk to Justice Thomas and Brian D. Schmalzbach, Associate at McGuire Woods LLP and Former Law Clerk to Justice Thomas) Justice Thomas has extended his unapologetic effort of recovering the original meaning of the Constitution into the law of criminal procedure. The Fourth Amendment protects “the right of the people to be secure
(By Will Consovoy, Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC and Former Clerk to Justice Thomas) The Fifteenth Amendment provides that “[t]he right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude,” and it further empowers Congress to “enforce” this
(By Will Consovoy, Consovoy McCarthy Park PLLC and Former Clerk to Justice Thomas) Early in his tenure, Justice Thomas gave a speech in Memphis, Tennessee to the National Bar Association—one of the nation’s oldest organizations of African-American attorneys. In that famous speech, Justice Thomas claimed the right “to think for myself, to refuse to have my ideas assigned to me