Cato Supreme Court Review 2010-11: Introduction

Abstract:     
This is the tenth volume of the Cato Supreme Court Review, the nation’s first in-depth critique of the Supreme Court term just ended. We release this journal every year in conjunction with our annual Constitution Day symposium, about two and a half months after the previous term ends and two weeks before the next one begins. We are proud of the speed with which we publish this tome - authors of articles about the last-decided cases have no more than a month to provide us full drafts - and of its accessibility, at least insofar as the Court’s opinions allow. This is not a typical law review, after all, whose prolix submissions use more space for obscure footnotes than for article text. Instead, this is a book of articles about law intended for everyone from lawyers and judges to educated laymen and interested citizens - and even Chief Justice John Roberts, who this past summer questioned law reviews’ utility and relevance.

And we are happy to confess our biases: We approach our subject matter from a classical Madisonian perspective, with a focus on individual liberty, property rights, and federalism, and a vision of a government of delegated, enumerated, and thus limited powers. We also try to maintain a strict separation of politics (and policy) and law; just because something is good policy doesn’t mean it’s legal, and vice versa. Similarly, certain decisions must necessarily be left to the political process: We aim to be governed by laws, not lawyers, so just as a good lawyer will present all plausibly legal options to his client, a good public official will recognize that the ultimate buck stops with him.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: Supreme Court, Cato, introduction, constitutional law, Madison

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