Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Many academics are unaware that I am Jewish, no doubt due, in part, to my last name as well as to my politics, Yet growing up as a Jew in Polish-Catholic Calumet City, Illinois and as a kid from Calumet City attending Temple in Hammond, Indiana made me quite conscious of the tyranny of the majority. This environment, together with the influence of my father, had a deep affect on my views of liberty, justice, individual rights, and the U.S. Constitution. In this brief essay, prepared for a symposium on “Judaism and Constitutional Law: People of the Book,” held at the DePaul University College of Law, I explain how being a contrarian Jew has affected my academic agenda, my scholarly commitments, and the future direction of my work. I also suggest implications of my latest work on Our Republican Constitution for Judaism itself.
Publication Citation
Rutgers J. Law & Relig. (forthcoming)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Barnett, Randy E., "The Making of a Libertarian, Contrarian, Nonobservant, but Self-Identified Jew" (2015). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1330.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1330