Georgetown Law Professor Randy Barnett is the author of A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist, a new memoir about his remarkable legal career. He joins Jeffrey Rosen to discuss his role in the evolution of originalism from a philosophy of judicial restraint to one of constitutional conservatism dedicated to restoring “the lost Constitution.”
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Today’s episode was produced by Lana Ulrich, Samson Mostashari, and Bill Pollock. It was engineered by Bill Pollock. Research was provided by Samson Mostashari, Cooper Smith, and Yara Daraiseh.
Participants
Randy E. Barnett is the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at the Georgetown University Law Center and is the faculty director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in Constitutional Studies and the Bradley Prize, Professor Barnett’s publications include several books, more than 100 articles and reviews, and numerous op-eds. His most recent book is A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center. Rosen is also a professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic. His most recent book is The Pursuit of Happiness: How Classical Writers on Virtue Inspired the Lives of the Founders and Defined America.
Additional Resources:
- Randy Barnett, “A Life for Liberty: The Making of an American Originalist (2024)
- Randy Barnett, “Restoring the Lost Constitution: The Presumption of Liberty (2014)
- Randy Barnett, “Two Conceptions of the Ninth Amendment,” (1989)
- Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously (1978)
- Antonin Scalia, “Originalism: The Lesser Evil,” (1989)
- National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (2012)
- “Originalism: A Matter of Interpretation,” NCC America’s Town Hall Program (2022)
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