Our Country Right Or Left

As reported by David Kopel on The Volokh Conspiracy, a special July 4 issue of the Boulder Weekly asks what the Founders would think about various modern issues. Followers of Blawg Review from its early days will remember the special hosted on Thomas Jefferson's Blog, which took a similar look at the modern-day legal blogosphere through the eyes of a lawyer, statesman and founding father. Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, and died fifty years later, on July 4, 1826.

With the Indpendence Day holiday falling midweek, we've taken a bit of a different approach this year, inviting our common law friends and best allies in the whole world, the British, to do the honours this week.

Happy 4th! -- and what's a "holiday" anyway?

holiday n. I've always wondered about this word and was enlightened by one of my trustworthy contributors. A holiday for a person in the UK is any time taken off work. For Americans, a vacation is time taken off specifically for yourself and a holiday is time that everyone gets off and they're paid for (Christmas, New Year, Easter, etc.). What Americans call holidays, we call public holidays. In actual fact we call all of them except Christmas and Easter "bank holidays". Scotland and England have bank holidays on different dates, presumably to stop the Scots and English meeting up and fighting in popular seaside towns.

As our way of marking this important holiday, we'd like to collect here a few thoughts, from the left and the right and everywhere in between, gleaned from law blogs this July 4th.

George M. Wallace asks, "Have you anything to declare?"

Bruce MacEwen reminds us that his law blog "Adam Smith, Esq." is relentlessly nonpartisan and nonideological, at least in the political realm, and posts a 4th of July Meditation urging all of us who blog to use these bully pulpits contribute to the public discourse on issues that affect our firms, our headquarter cities, or simply the well-being of our nation.

Ann Althouse posts what is described as her most right wing photograph and, as always, comments ensue.

Jack Balkin analyses the relative power of conservative and liberal blogs.

Milbarge describes the tradition of pardoning the culinary icon of another venerated American holiday.

Seth Freilich posts Keith Olbermann's Special Comment on President Bush's commutation of the sentence of Scooter Libby on the eve of Independence Day.

KipEsquire notes that, today, the clash between unbridled majoritarianism and restrained, respectful libertarianism — the ultimate "war for independence" — wages on.

Norman Gregory Fernandez posts something for us all to remember this Independence Day.

Anthony Cerminaro notes that ten score and eleven years ago our forefathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Jeralyn Merritt hosts an Open Thread: On Patriotism and Liberty.

Glenn Reynolds posts, on Independence Day, ways to help American troops overseas.

Bridget Crawford posts Declarations of Independence.

These law librarians have really done their research of 4th of July celebrations, and point us to an excellent presidential mashup of the Star Spangled Banner they found at JibJab.

Craig Williams wonders, what with July 4th landing in the muddle of his work week, if he should just call it a long weekend.

David Giacalone reminds us to go 4th and celebrate!

Kenneth Anderson says, "It's sometimes hard for friends of mine who are card-carrying post-national cosmopolitans from Europe or elsewhere to understand that it's not considered weird in the US for progressive lefty types, especially with kids, to attend, and for that matter organize, these kinds of neighborhood parades, and stand around on the street waving flags and red, white and blue. We had a flag out one July 4 when a friend was visiting from Europe; so did lots of the neighbors - he asked whether those houses who had put out flags were Republicans and those that hadn't were Democrats, red state versus blue state - and was very surprised when I told him I doubted there was any correlation on our street at all."