Contributions by ‘Jason Mazzone’

Jason Mazzone[1] Introduction With The Words That Made Us,[2] Akhil Reed Amar has given us a big book. The volume—the first in a planned trilogy—provides a sweeping (re)vision of early American constitutional history that begins with the news reaching Boston in December 1760 that King George II is dead and his son is on the…

Jason Mazzone[1] Introduction The fortieth anniversary of John Hart Ely’s influential book, Democracy and Distrust: A Theory of Judicial Review, is a good occasion to focus less on democracy and more on distrust. Ely famously sets forth a process-based approach to judicial review, one he describes as “participation-oriented, representation-reinforcing.”[2] Under Ely’s approach, majorities are generally…

settled versus right: A Theory of precedent. By Randy J. Kozel.[1] Cambridge University Press. 2017. PP. x + 180. $99.99 (hardcover), $34.99 (paper). Jason Mazzone[2] Not all precedent is equal. Some precedents are given more weight, are harder to overturn, than are others. Super-precedents,[3] even super-duper-precedents,[4] have special status.[5] Legal academics consider them canonized;[6] judges…