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Michael Stokes Paulsen

Michael Stokes Paulsen is Distinguished University Chair & Professor of Law, at the University of St. Thomas, in Minneapolis. He is co-author, with Luke Paulsen, of The Constitution: An Introduction, published by Basic Books.

Supreme Court

A Lawless Court Gives Us a Lawless Presidency

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The president is not a king above the law. With the failure of the courts and political institutions to preserve and enforce these principles, it falls to us, who are the first and last check on government, to do so with all the lawful powers at our disposal as citizens.  
supreme court

The Magnificence of Dobbs

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Dobbs may be the most important, magnificent, rightly decided Supreme Court case of all time. It is restorative of constitutional principle. It upholds the values of representative, democratic self-government, and the rule of law, at the same time that it supports the protection of fundamental human rights. It is literally a matter of life and death. It is potentially transformative of American society, for the better. It is a rare act of judicial courage and principle. In every way, Dobbs is a truly great decision.
pregnant, baby, life

The One and Only Pro-Life Argument

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The focus of pro-life advocacy should always be on the fact that the unborn child is a human being, with a moral status equal to a born child, and not on distractions about social policy, sexual ethics, or other rights claims that overlook this biological reality.
Constitution

Repudiating Roe (Part II): The Pernicious Doctrine of Stare Decisis

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The doctrine of stare decisis is a dangerous tool, malleable, and peculiarly susceptible to manipulation and abuse. It entices and deceives. If just two justices compromise their principles and betray the Constitution, Dobbs will be lost. If so, Dobbs will displace Casey as the worst Supreme Court decision of all time, and the justices rendering it will merit the most severe condemnation of history. But if the Court overrules Roe and Casey, the Dobbs case would rank among the most magnificent decisions in the Court’s history.
Supreme Court

Repudiating Roe (Part I): The Most Important Abortion Case in Thirty Years

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This is a signal moment in America’s constitutional history. One of the most notorious decisions in the Court’s history is likely either to be repudiated and overruled—discarded, finally and definitively—or else reaffirmed and entrenched, perhaps permanently. The stakes could not possibly be higher.
Prayer

Pray, Trust, Act, and Hope: An Easter Letter

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My prayer for all of you—for all of us—is that God would not only intervene dramatically to kill this virus, but also that, in the course of doing so, God might strengthen us in our faith and trust, and in our understanding of our ultimate dependence on Him for all of life.

Commander in Chief: War, Foreign Affairs, and the Constitutional Power to Impeach a President

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The framers deliberately designed a strong presidency with the power to wage war with energy, secrecy, and dispatch. Impeachment, in turn, was designed to be a formidable congressional check on the formidable powers of the president—power counteracting power, ambition checking ambition.

The Constitutional Position and Powers of the Presidency: Executing Laws and Interpreting the Constitution

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The framers deliberately gave the president independence, unity, and vast powers. This is only a problem if the office is badly filled.

The Constitutional Power of the Electoral College

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The framers of the Constitution designed the elector system to balance the need for the people to have a voice and the desire to have a refined, informed body actually choose the president in order to avoid the election of a demagogue or charlatan.
Public Discourse

The Supreme Greatness of Justice Antonin Scalia

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For his immense contributions to constitutional discourse, his sound constitutional vision, his rigorous and vigorous opinions, his fearlessness and peerlessness, Justice Scalia is one of the greatest Supreme Court justices of all time.
Public Discourse

Scalia at St. Thomas: Closing Arguments

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A man of deep faith and scintillating reason, Justice Scalia had an extraordinary ability to notice obvious, important truths that many overlooked. His informal remarks a few months before his death give insight into his intellect and character.
Public Discourse

The Constitutional Powers of War and Peace

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228 years ago today, the Framers at the Constitutional Convention decided the power to declare war would be reserved to Congress, and the power to conduct war and make peace would be reserved to the president. Presidents and congresses have not always followed the Constitution in matters of war, but that doesn’t mean the Constitution has changed.
Public Discourse

The Stakes of Free Exercise

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The Free Exercise Clause creates a unique type of constitutional liberty—a substantive freedom that limits the extent to which government can interfere with religious freedom.
Public Discourse

Citizens, Unite! Part Two of Your Constitutional Primer

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“Constitutional law” is not the exclusive domain of the courts, or even of government officials. Faithful interpretation is the duty and responsibility of faithful citizens.
Public Discourse

Everything You Need to Know About Constitutional Law

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Reading and understanding the Constitution is not an especially complicated intellectual exercise. It takes lawyers, judges, and law professors to turn it into something difficult and convoluted.
Public Discourse

Justice Scalia’s Worst Opinion

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Antonin Scalia is one of the most brilliant, principled, sound, and thoughtful jurists ever to sit on the Supreme Court. But twenty-five years ago today, his legal skills utterly failed him.
Public Discourse

Passover, Abortion, and Rabbi Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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Justice Ginsburg praises the heroic women who defied Pharaoh’s authority to save the Hebrews’ baby boys from death. Apparently, she does not have an eye for contemporary parallels.
Public Discourse

President Obama’s Dishonest and Unconstitutional De-Authorization

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President Obama’s “authorization” request is designed to curtail existing legal authority to wage war on ISIL and to handcuff future presidents in the exercise of their constitutional authority as commander in chief.
Public Discourse

Abraham Lincoln and Same-Sex Marriage

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The structure and logic of the legal arguments made for nationwide judicial imposition of same-sex marriage are remarkably similar to the arguments made by those who argued for the judicial imposition of slavery nationwide. Will the Republican Party produce another Lincoln to stand against them?
Public Discourse

Men, Abortion, Sin, and Salvation

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Abortion is not, in the end, about “sin” or “redemption.” It is about human life and its extermination.
Public Discourse

Lady Edith and Abortion Rights

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For many women, the social, practical, and personal reasons for having an abortion simply trump the life of their child.
Public Discourse

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words: The Constitutional Soundness of Ultrasound Requirements

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“Informed choice” legislation does not impede a woman’s ability to choose abortion. Such laws enlighten the abortion choice by making clear exactly what it is that is being chosen.
Public Discourse

How to Avoid an Unconstitutional War: A Beginner’s Guide for Presidents and Congresses

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Without authorization from Congress, American presidents can only start unconstitutional wars, even if they are motivated by good intentions.
Public Discourse

With Malice Toward Some

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Lincoln’s Order of Retaliation—a command to kill Confederate prisoners as punishment for the South’s massacre of black Union soldiers—can help frame our view of presidential military power today.
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