This is the reason interview with Nikolespi. My guest today is Libertarian legal giant Randy Barnett,

who's just published his memoir, A Life for Liberty, the Making of an American Originalist.

Currently, a law professor at Georgetown, I talk with Randy about his days as a prosecutor in Chicago,

how he helped create the legal philosophy of originalism,

what it was like arguing medical marijuana and Obamacare cases at the Supreme Court,

and what he learned from a narco-capitalist Murray Rothbard.

We also discuss why he thinks the Libertarian movement needs an intellectual reboot

and how his working-class Jewish upbringing in Calumet

City, Illinois remains central to his identity.

Here is the Reason interview with Randy Barnett.

Randy Barnett, author of A Life for Liberty. Thanks for talking a reason.

Thanks for having me, Nick. I always look forward to our conversations. I've been looking

forward to this one ever since you invited me. So let's start where you begin the book, which is in a kind of cinematic way, where you're about to appear before

the Supreme Court for Gonzales v. Rach, the 2005 Supreme Court case about medical marijuana

in California. What were the stakes in that case, you know, set the scene for us?

Right. Well, the reason I start there, and the book is, which is a memoir, is constructed as

kind of a fractured narrative. Because if you start a memoir saying, oh, I was born in a log cabin

and I've already fallen asleep. yes exactly so you got to give the

readers some stake in the story and the first my first big splash as a supreme court litigator

was arguing the rage case a lawsuit that I helped bring along with two other lawyers on behalf of

angel rach and diane monson What was at stake were two things.

One is simply establishing limits on congressional power so that it wouldn't be the case

...