Georgetown’s Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law, Randy Barnett, is no stranger to the Bradley Impact Fund community. A former Bradley Prize winner, Mr. Barnett is one of the foremost champions of “originalist” legal philosophy that has, for the moment, regained influence in the federal court system. The idea is simple, really: originalists believe the Constitution means what it says, as the founders intended, rather than what we wish it said today.
Mr. Barnett is one of today’s strongest defenders of the Big Ideas that formed America, and because of his efforts, conservative justices at every level of the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, have had talented law clerks available to help research and draft some of the most consequential rulings of the last couple of decades. Mr. Barnett is, in other words, not just a thinker, but a doer—one whose influence extends far beyond the halls of academia. Impact Fund donors will therefore not be surprised at his creative response to the constant problem of universities that often fail to honor the intent of donors—especially the intent of conservative donors.
Like so many others in our wider community of purpose, Mr. Barnett’s commitment to advancing Constitutional Values and protecting donor intent led him to build something new: The Foundation for the Constitution. With this independent nonprofit, supporters (including several from the Impact Fund community) can support the mission of the Center for the Constitution and impact the direction of the judiciary for the next generation without giving directly through university channels.
Alongside the Foundation for the Constitution, the companion Center for the Constitution was founded in 2012 to advance constitutional law and theory with a special emphasis on how best to remain faithful to the text of our founding document. Along with Professor Stephanie Barclay, Mr. Barnett directs the Center’s lectures, faculty colloquia, conferences, visiting scholars, post-graduate fellowships, and student fellows. All its activities are designed to engage scholars, students, and even Supreme Court justices in conversations about how to interpret and apply the document that sits under glass less than ten blocks away from Georgetown Law.
The foundation’s new Research Fellows program, for example, supports early-career academics whose scholarship focuses on constitutional law or constitutional theory. The fellowship will help scholars to build a network with both junior and senior scholars working on constitutional law issues. The inaugural class of twenty-three fellows was announced this past October, with candidates coming from schools nationwide and from firms dedicated to conserving the founders’ intent in the Constitution. Another innovation from the Center, funded through the Foundation, could also have a game-changing effect on originalism going forward.
The Interactive Constitution is an online guide to originalist scholarship on the U.S. Constitution, taking, according to Alexa Gervasi, the Center’s Executive Director, “an important step in taking originalism from the abstract of academia and into practice. This novel resource. . . will provide practitioners and judges with a much-needed starting point for understanding and applying the original public meaning of the Constitution.” Visitors to the Interactive Constitution website find not only the entire Constitution text, they find each provision linked to summaries of articles and scholarship that highlight the intent of the founders. Now, scholars, students, law clerks, practitioners, and judges have a rich and growing source of scholarship on the original public meaning of our Constitution.
These are just a few highlights of Mr. Barnett’s and his colleagues’ creativity and drive to ensure that originalism only gains momentum during the next generation. But from a philanthropic perspective, the Foundation for the Constitution’s model poses a fascinating case study of its own: when established leaders in academia have a vision worth backing, donors who had previously given up on funding university programs have a new option.
