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The Political Orphanage

Your Invisible Rights: Randy Barnett

Oct 12, 2023
Randy Barnett, one of America's foremost jurists and a professor at Georgetown Law, discusses unenumerated rights in the context of the 9th and 10th amendments. The podcast covers the evolution of judicial philosophy, the concept of natural rights, government regulation of public morality, the distinction between negative and positive rights, federalism 3.0 and the 10th amendment, and the originalist interpretation of cruel and unusual punishment.
01:31:58

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • The distinction between limited government power and unlimited government power is a central philosophical distinction within the law.
  • Unenumerated rights, although not explicitly listed in the Constitution, are fundamental and should be protected.

Deep dives

The Philosophy of Limited Government

The podcast episode explores the central philosophical distinction within the law: can the government do anything as long as it's not explicitly prohibited by the Constitution, or is its power limited to what the Constitution prescribes? This distinction applies to people as well: can the government regulate activities not expressly protected by the Constitution? The episode dives into the history of common law and the Napoleonic Code to explain the different perspectives on government power. It also discusses the post-New Deal consensus and the sorting of judicial philosophy that began in 1980.

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