The challenge of constitutional interpretation
Kenji Yoshino is the Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at the NYU School of Law. Prior to moving to NYU, he was the inaugural Guido Calabresi Professor of Law and Deputy Dean of Intellectual Life at Yale Law School, where he taught from 1998 to 2008.
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| 1. Watch the segment beginning at the 2:45 mark. What does Yoshino believe in regard to the idea of a living Constitution? |
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| 2. Does he think that the constructionist versus interpretavist distinction is worthwhile? What problems arise from this classification? |
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| 3. What does he argue is a better way to consider constitutional interpretation? |
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Constitutional interpretation
Richard Posner is an influential legal theorist and author and currently a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
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| 4. Watch the segment beginning at the 1:55 mark. How does Posner characterize the interpretation of the Constitution? |
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| 5. Does his approach differ from Yoshino’s? How so? |
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| 6. How does he characterize the relationship between circuit courts and the Supreme Court? Does the idea of the Supreme Court “embarrassing” the circuit court surprise you? Why? |
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