Purchasing Submission

Professor Hamburger takes on the whole of government by challenging regulation effected by bureaucratic bribery, extortion, and barratry. He traces actions of federal, state, local, and private agents that procure what passes as the 'consent' of the governed, to submission and further crimping of our liberties. A powerful analytical framework by which to combat encroachment on our rights by government in all its forms, and by government's private proxies. -- Judge Carlos Bea, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit To the venerable doctrine of 'unconstitutional conditions'-the deceptively simple idea that government may not do indirectly what it may not do directly-Philip Hamburger has brought his great talents as a political theorist, law professor, and civil libertarian. Following his pathbreaking earlier work on the perils of government by the unelected agents of the administrative state, he now contributes deep insight and learning to the phenomenon of legal power exercised by the richest potentate in America: the federal government. An important and welcome contribution to the history and politics of the modern American state. -- Judge Jose A. Cabranes, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit This book brings to light, in one place, the myriad ways in which the federal and state governments purchase our submission to conditions-some of them unconstitutional-without going through the regular legal order of legislation or even administrative rulemaking. From the licensing of broadcasters to the 'chemical castration' of sex offenders, to surprise inspections of AFDC households, transactional government buys our consent to what the author rightly calls 'an alternative mode of governance.' -- Judge Douglas H. Ginsburg, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit Having already taught us how administrative power has displaced the legislative and judicial processes for enacting laws and adjudicating cases, Professor Hamburger now explains how government's placement of conditions on spending and other government benefits also displaces constitutional processes and risks undermining our constitutional liberties. It is not a happy book, but one that is essential reading. Eye-opening. -- Michael Rappaport, coauthor of <i>Originalism and the Good Constitution</i> This important book lays bare a critical threat to our liberty and basic structure of government, explaining how our own tax dollars are being used to purchase consent and to obviate the need for the government to regulate through more accountable channels. Equally important, it offers concrete suggestions to retool constitutional doctrine to meet the realities of how we are now governed. -- Paul Clement, 43rd Solicitor General of the United States