1. Balkin--like Akhil Amar, Larry Solum, and other heavyweight liberal legal theorists--wants to reconcile originalism with progressive living constitutionalism

2. Constitutionalism and the Common Good At National Review, Dan McLaughlin recently had a compelling takedown of the new push for “common good originalism.” That brand of originalism received a fuller explication yesterday in a joint statement at The American Mind from Hadley Arkes, Josh Hammer, Matthew Peterson and Garrett Snedeker.

3. I will also argue that the Conventionalist approach can be justified by the same conservative values--the rule of law, promotion of democracy, and so on--that are commonly invoked in support of originalism

4. Rewriting the Constitution might remove some limiting provisions, but consider then the sense of originalism as it may be focused upon years later in Construing a rewritten constitution, with so much more documentation regarding original intent, original meaning, original understanding, original whatever du jour, for scholars to consider?

5. Read Balkin’s argument that the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate is a tax—and is therefore constitutional— at The Atlantic; At The Daily Kos, read a discussion with Balkin about how “living originalism” relates to the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act; Follow Jack Balkin (“JB”)’s posts at his blog, Balkinization