Preface.

• Author: West, Kyle

Textualism--and the restraint that we all hope it inspires--is at the heart of the conservative legal movement. The 2013 Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention: "Texualism and the Role of Judges" addressed, among other topics, the place of textualism in interpreting the Constitution. We are thrilled that we have been given the opportunity to publish several Essays adapted from comments given on topic at the Convention.

As part of a panel titled Textualism and the Bill of Rights, Professors Stephanos Bibas, Richard Epstein, Nadine Strossen, and Eugene Volokh discussed the place of textualism in constitutional interpretation and its relationship to originialism. Each of these authors has been kind enough to provide us with a thoughtful and well-crafted Essay addressing a different aspect of this question.

The Honorable Neil M. Gorsuch, in remarks adapted from the Convention's Annual Barbara K. Olson Memorial Lecture, delivers a thoughtful defense of the American legal system. Judge Gorsuch's remarks are especially timely given the age of cynicism in which we seem to live.

We also have the pleasure of bringing you six Articles in this Issue. First, Professors Laura Donohue and John Yoo provide contrasting views on the legality of several NSA mass-surveillance programs exposed last year. Professor Alexander Volokh next assesses the prospects of challenging delegations of lawmaking power to private entities, concluding that arguments based on due process and antitrust law may be able to defeat such delegations. Next, practitioner Alan Devlin and Professor Michael Jacobs argue that, because they lack predictive value, behavioral law and economics theories cannot be usefully employed to develop new antitrust principles. Finally, Donald Drakeman presents the results of the "Originalism 2012" survey, which investigated what types of arguments the public finds most convincing when it comes to constitutional interpretation.

We round out Volume 37 with two student pieces. First, John Robinson provides an insightful new framework for understanding the nuisances of the ministerial exception. We conclude with Spencer Churchill's exploration of the implications of originalist and liberal arguments concerning corporate free exercise.

The publication of this Issue marks the end of my time on the Journal, and I would like to use this opportunity to extend special...