The Contributions of William Funk to American Constitutional Law Scholarship

This Essay discusses the contributions of Professor William Funk to American constitutional law scholarship on the occasion of a festschrift held in his honor at Lewis & Clark Law School on April 5, 2019. Reviewing Professor Funk’s varied scholarship reveals his careful, attentive, and even-handed approach. The Essay concludes by comparing Professor Funk’s style of constitutional law scholarship to the approach to substantive due process embraced by Justice David Souter in his classic concurring opinion in Washington v. Glucksberg. Just like Justice Souter’s analysis in Glucksberg, Professor Funk’s scholarship seeks justification for rules in the results they generate, rejects arid all-or-nothing approaches to constitutional principle, and, even while acknowledging the imperative of legal evolution, recognizes that the surest foundations of such evolution lay in what had come before.

This comparison reveals the great value of Professor Funk’s contributions to the American constitutional project of creating a system that fairly balances the imperatives of order and liberty.