A great defender of the right of people to use their property as they choose and to engage in business without having to plead for governmental permission has died. Professor Bernard Siegan’s book Economic Liberties and the Constitution was one of the early attacks against the entrenched “progressive” jurisprudence that government control over property and regulation of business enterprise is necessary and beneficial. It was published in 1981 and Siegan finished editing a new edition last year.
He was nominated for a seat on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1988 by President Reagan, but the Senate Judiciary Committee wouldn’t give him a hearing. Teddy Kennedy, Joe Biden and friends knew that they didn’t want a scholar who believed that the Constitution confers almost none of the power they want government to exercise to sit on any federal court.
Two of Siegan’s colleagues write in praise of him here.
