Harry Jaffa's Toxic Constitutional Legacy

My recent exchange with a disciple of the late Harry V. Jaffa, the vituperative political philosopher long associated with Claremont McKenna College, prompted me to explore in greater detail Jaffa's many feuds with leading conservative figures, such as Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, former Attorney General Ed Meese, Judge Robert Bork, law professor Lino Graglia, and noted constitutional litigator Chuck Cooper of the law firm Cooper & Kirk (who clerked for Rehnquist and served in the Department of Justice under President Reagan)—all of whom he harshly condemned. These feuds were pursued for the most part in the pre-digital age, and cannot easily be accessed in detail via the Internet. Accordingly, I recently obtained a copy of a 1999 compilation of Jaffa's essays on the Constitution, Storm Over the Constitution, that is a fascinating summary of his eccentric views. Storm Over the Constitution features a Preface by Larry P. Arnn, an Introduction by Edward J. Erler, and essays by Graglia and Cooper (reprinted from elsewhere).