Monday, November 23, 2020

Davies on the Mann Act's Marbury Moment

Ross E. Davies, George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School, has posted Who Cares What Congress Thinks? Not James Mann: The Mann Act’s Marbury Moment, which appears as 10 Journal of Law 105 (2020):

James Mann (LC)
In Caminetti v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court employed a severely puritanical approach — on the facts and on the law — to statutory interpretation. Conversely, the opinion for the Court in Caminetti triggered an intriguingly indulgent legislative-judicial exchange about the role of the courts in statutory interpretation. This little essay begins with a quick look at Caminetti and the statute it interpreted, proceeds through a similarly speedy examination of that indulgent post-decision exchange, and concludes with a few questions.
--Dan Ernst