Philip Hamburger

Scholarship has required scholars to reconsider basic constitutional law concepts. Work generally takes a historically-informed view of constitutional law, rather than an effort to figure out the precise original meaning of the constitutional text. Explores previously ignored sources to understand the full context and development of constitutional ideas. In Separation of Church and State (2002), shows the idea of separation of church and state became a constitutional ideal in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries largely because of religious prejudice. In Law and Judicial Duty (2008), reveals that what today is called judicial review was for centuries understood as part of the ordinary duty of a judge to exercise judgment in accord with the law of the land. These books challenge contemporary assumptions, yet rest on deep and careful scholarship. Writes on threats to academic freedom, particularly in the use of Institutional Review Boards to suppress inquiry and publication. Argues that these boards constitute most serious abridgement of the freedom of speech and the press in the nation's history--with huge costs in human life as a result of the suppression of research.