Justice Thomas only this past week, for example, indicated that the Court should not be hesitant to overrule its own precedents should they be manifestly unjust.I realize that I basically agree with the McCloskeyan approach and, therefore, am inclined to agree with much of Lessig’s argument insofar as it is similar. [read post]

Today’s justices make generous use of legal canons—those old principles of interpretation that come from Roman law and are often, perhaps surprisingly, shared with Islamic law.[15]After Karl Llewelyn excoriated the use of these legal canons to interpret statutes as incoherent over half a century ago, Justice Scalia and his textualist colleagues (and disciples) rehabilitated them.[16]They are now favored tools for Justices Barrett, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito, Roberts, and Thomas. [read post]