Blackman & Baude Debate Section 3 in Chicago

A civil and insightful exchange at the Union League Club.

Some readers may recall that at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention, I challenged Will Baude to a debate on Section 3. He graciously accepted my challenge, and we held the debate today at the Chicago Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society. I thought our exchange was both civil and insightful. I hope the oral arguments at the Supreme Court next month reflect this level of discourse. The video is below, and you can download my slides here.

 

Comments

[Frank Drackman]

They're just missing Shemp

[Aunt Teefah]

The most physically attractive FedSoc members

[AmosArch]

Nice father and son pic.

[Randal]

Dum and Dee Tweedle.

[Dan Schiavetta]

Louie Anderson from “Coming to America” with Josh Mostel from “Jesus Christ Superstar”.

[Terry2007]

They need to spend less time writing about section 3 and start going to a gym.

[bernard11]

Not to mention getting haircuts.

[SRG2]

Comparative advantage: it's more efficient for Will Baude to lecture on law and me to go to the gym 🙂

I am not sure the same argument applies wrt Josh, tho'.

[Vryedni]

Criticize the arguments, their priors, their intellect. They invite all that by entering the arena of public debate. But what have they done to merit mean-spirited cracks about their physical appearance? Yeah, I know, Josh being the least self-aware person on the planet posted the pictures. Still. They may actually read these comments. They're human beings. They have feelings. It's cruel.

[ObviouslyNotSpam]

Yeah, but c'mom. TWO photos?

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

.

They’re human beings. They have feelings. It’s cruel.

That's quite a strange objection to advance at a blog that

(1) incessantly publishes slurs targeting gays, Blacks, Muslims, Jews, women, transgendered persons, immigrants, drag queens, Hispanics, and others disfavored by right-wingers,

(2) cultivates bigots as its target audience, and

(3) tolerates frequent calls for liberals to be gassed, shot in the face when opening doors, exterminated, raped, placed face-down in landfills, sent to Zyklon showers, lined up and shot, shoved through woodchippers, etc.

Other than that, though, great comment!

[MaverickNH]

Dweebs, perhaps. But OUR dweebs…

[William Cheswick]

Great conversation, but the video would have embarrassed a member of a 7th grade A/V club.

[Lockean Liberal]

Was anyone else struck by the resemblance between Will and Josh? When Will first took the stage, as he was walking up, I actually turned to my g/f and said "Wow, Josh Blackman has put on some weight." And I meant it. I thought he was Josh.
Seeing them side by side like this has convinced me Will Baude is Josh Blackman's doppelgänger (Or Josh Blackman is Will Baude's doppelgänger.)

[Dan Schiavetta]

The Union League Club!

My old boss belonged to that (in New York) and took us there a couple of times for a Christmas "party". It was creepy -- white guys in nice suits dining, waited on by elderly black men. Portraits of Important White Guys With Beards on the walls. I was very uncomfortable.

[Kleppe]

"I was very uncomfortable."

Very normal and not in any way psychotic.

[Kazinski]

I’m disgusted at the sight of an anti-the-president-is-an-office-under-the-united-stater fraternizing with a pro-the-president-is-an-office-under-the-united-stater.

We’ve been fighting this battle in the comments for months to the near death, and here they are acting like its all just fun and games.

[David Nieporent]

Poe's law; I can't tell if Kazinski is joking.

[StevenColeson]

I'm baffled by the inane, irrelevant comments regarding an excellent and intellectual debate about one of the most pressing constitutional issues of this Court's term -- and by two of the foremost constitutional scholars of the day. Thank you Profs. Baude and Blackman for doing this! (And thank you, Reason, for allowing me to mute users. I can now do that for all the (l)users who commented on this post.)

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

.

two of the foremost constitutional scholars of the day

You are intensely unfamiliar with modern, mainstream legal academia. You're probably a disaffected clinger in great standing, though. Standing at the disrespected fringe, that is.

[windycityattorney]

Apropos of nothing; but the Union League Club was right next to my old office building and a rock skip away from my old law school.

I always wondered what the hell they did in there. Occasionally I would see a lot of fancy cars and people in bow ties milling about and just assumed it was for a wedding or some type of special event that I would never be invited to and to not ask questions, as is custom in Chicago. There's a lot of money floating around that city and lots of old/historic buildings the insides of which 99.5% of the population will have never set foot.

[Alpheus W Drinkwater]

Thanks for the link. Before I spend an hour and a quarter on it, was any new ground broken? Or is it just the same arguments already beaten to death on both sides?