MWI Weekly 6.30.22: Special Newsletter
Well, it has been a week. With all the news since our last newsletter, it's almost hard to choose where to begin. We even delayed our General Newsletter for a couple days to digest what had already happened -- and promptly got even more.
We're also coming up on a long Fourth of July weekend, and many people are already on vacation (whether physically or not). With everyone's attention surely turning to the holiday, for this week's newsletter we're just going to quickly review the highlights. Next week we'll talk about our own commentary on the substance of the issues.
Here we go.
Obviously, a lot came down at the end of the Supreme Court term, including decisions in several landmark cases. We no sooner had read through the opinions in one big case when another one came down. Reading through them, it's fair to say there's been a massive shift on the Court, and an incredibly rapid one, too.
The three biggest cases were Dobbs v. Jackson (overturning Roe), the decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen invalidating New York's concealed carry law, and the final big case of the term, West Virginia v. the Environmental Protection Agency (which limited the EPA's rulemaking authority).
Each of these cases on their own would have been a bombshell, but to have them all come at essentially the same time is breathtaking. For us Whigs there's something to like and something to not like in all of them, at least in terms of outcomes. But what really matters to us is the reasoning, and that's where things start to get a little disturbing.
We'll discuss this more fully after we've finished reviewing all the case materials -- and there is a lot to review -- but for now I'll just point out Whig jurisprudence is somewhat similar to, but quite distinguishable from, the political process theory of interpretation propounded by John Hart Ely. (His original commentary on Roe is worth reading if you have the time.)
In general terms, we believe Congress, and only Congress, should make the law, while the courts should limit themselves to interpreting the law and the Executive Branch should only administer it. As a practical matter it's often not that simple, of course, and the devil is forever in the details. But that's our foundational view.
We also believe in judicial interpretation informed by the most time-honored principles, going back to the Blackstone Commentaries. That's also not always that simple -- it's the law, after all -- but we think it's always dangerous when the Supreme Court, regardless of which side of the philosophical spectrum is in the majority, seems to feel the need to reach for a new way of looking at the Constitution, especially where rights are involved.
More on all of that after the holiday.
The other big news of the past week is the snap House January 6th Committee hearing on Tuesday, June 28. The one and only witness was Cassidy Hutchinson, former deputy to Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. If you missed it, you can see the full session here:
January 6th Committee Sixth Public Hearing - YouTube
Running time is about two hours, but it's worth it. We're sure there's going to be much more to come. To paraphrase Churchill, her testimony wasn't the end, nor the beginning of the end, but it marks, perhaps, the end of the beginning.
We'll have to wait until after the holiday to find out what else the committee has in store for us, but at the moment it's clear they have a mountain of evidence in what may be the greatest political crisis in our history.
Deputy chair Rep. Liz Cheney certainly thinks so. She pulled no punches in her speech at the Reagan Library:
A Time for Choosing with Congresswoman Liz Cheney - YouTube
Maybe over the coming weekend we should all take a moment among the fun and BBQs and flag-waving and fireworks to pause and consider her words. Not only was she often profound, she was, at least in terms of principle, unquestionably right: every day is a time for choosing for us Americans; it's been that way since the very beginning, when we declared we would no longer be a colony but a free People.
We must honor the courage of the men who made the greatest choice of all and signed that document by showing courage of our own, today, tomorrow and forever. It is nothing less than our patriotic duty.
And with that, we wish you a Happy Independence Day. As always, it's a pleasure to be at your service. See you next week.
