Barry Friedman, New York University School of Law, has posted
The Story of Ex Parte Young: Once Controversial, Now Canon, which is forthcoming in
Federal Courts Stories, ed. Vicki Jackson & Judith Resnik. Here’s the abstract:
Ex parte Young is a central part of the federal courts canon, yet the underlying historical details are little known or understood. This is unfortunate. Many cases in the canon are contested by advocates of greater or lesser federal court intervention. Ex parte Young, however, is bedrock, almost universally admired across the ideological spectrum. At the time, though, this decision opening the doors to federal court was widely condemned by progressives who disdained judicial involvement in economic legislation. The Story of Ex Parte Young tells of the cases' origins in Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, shedding light on how we should understand this now widely-accepted decision.
Image credit: Rufus Peckham
