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Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Ramesh Ponnuru Cites Constitution in Exile!!!

We had a small tussle over whether various appointees embrace a theory of "The Constitution in Exile" which would require extreme rollback of federal powers. Karnick and I, plus citees from The Volokh Conspiracy (heavy legal experts), called B.S. on one of our commenter's assertions about the CIE. I have to give some credit to the commenter because Ramesh Ponnuru of NRO talks about it as a going concern with at least one judge here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note that Ponnuru is quoting Jeffrey Rosen here, not asserting himself that Sentelle is part of some constitution in exile movement.

On Roberts himself, my only observation is that he's damn smart. Also funny. Here's the opening of his opinion in Consumers Energy Company v. FERC:

"It was a close thing, but Benedict Arnold's bold plan to capture Canada for the Revolution fell short at the Battle of Quebec in early 1776. As a result, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must now decide when affiliates of Canadian utilities — utilities not subject to FERC jurisdiction — may sell power at market-based rates in the United States."

He decided against our client in a case I helped write the brief for (one which has been mentioned in several articles on him already and will probably continue to be remarked upon) but at least he perfectly understood the arguments we were making -- something which I'm not sure was true of the lower court and I'm pretty sure was not true of the other side.

Hunter Baker said...

Thank you for the clarification, John. Still, it's more on the CIE than I'd seen so far from anybody in the influential segment of the conservative movement.

Kathy Hutchins said...

it's more on the CIE than I'd seen so far from anybody in the influential segment of the conservative movement.

When Ramesh Ponnuru writes "Constitution in Exile" it's like me writing "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" -- it's an ironic reference to a trope the other side uses, nudge nudge wink wink. It's like gay men reclaiming "Queer."

Isn't Jeffrey Rosen the one who thinks the Federalist Society is like the Posse Comitatus in wing-tips?

Anonymous said...

Ponnuru clarifies his position on the matter here:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_07_17_corner-archive.asp#070342

Anonymous said...

Ponnuru clarifies his position on the matter here:

http://corner.nationalreview.com/05_07_17_corner-archive.asp#070342