[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"archetype-name-map":3,"thinker-adrian-vermeule":100},[4,7,10,13,16,19,22,25,28,31,34,37,40,43,46,49,52,55,58,61,64,67,70,73,76,79,82,85,88,91,94,97],{"slug":5,"name":6},"anarcho-capitalist","Anarcho-Capitalist",{"slug":8,"name":9},"establishment-progressive","Establishment Progressive",{"slug":11,"name":12},"progressive-activist","Progressive Activist",{"slug":14,"name":15},"techno-progressive","Techno-Progressive",{"slug":17,"name":18},"patriotic-progressive","Patriotic Progressive",{"slug":20,"name":21},"conservative-democrat","Conservative Democrat",{"slug":23,"name":24},"moderate-conservative","Moderate Conservative",{"slug":26,"name":27},"reform-conservative","Reform Conservative",{"slug":29,"name":30},"religious-conservative","Religious Conservative",{"slug":32,"name":33},"traditionalist","Traditionalist",{"slug":35,"name":36},"national-populist","National Populist",{"slug":38,"name":39},"left-nationalist","Left Nationalist",{"slug":41,"name":42},"welfare-nationalist","Welfare Nationalist",{"slug":44,"name":45},"moderate-liberal","Moderate Liberal",{"slug":47,"name":48},"pragmatic-centrist","Pragmatic Centrist",{"slug":50,"name":51},"authoritarian-left","Authoritarian Left",{"slug":53,"name":54},"authoritarian-right","Authoritarian Right",{"slug":56,"name":57},"democratic-socialist","Democratic Socialist",{"slug":59,"name":60},"christian-socialist","Christian Socialist",{"slug":62,"name":63},"market-socialist","Market Socialist",{"slug":65,"name":66},"trad-socialist","Trad Socialist",{"slug":68,"name":69},"civil-libertarian","Civil Libertarian",{"slug":71,"name":72},"compassionate-libertarian","Compassionate Libertarian",{"slug":74,"name":75},"left-libertarian","Left Libertarian",{"slug":77,"name":78},"traditional-libertarian","Traditional Libertarian",{"slug":80,"name":81},"classical-liberal","Classical Liberal",{"slug":83,"name":84},"social-liberal","Social Liberal",{"slug":86,"name":87},"national-conservative","National Conservative",{"slug":89,"name":90},"neoconservative","Neoconservative",{"slug":92,"name":93},"techno-authoritarian","Techno-Authoritarian",{"slug":95,"name":96},"independent-thinker","Independent Thinker",{"slug":98,"name":99},"market-liberal","Market Liberal",{"thinker":101,"archetypes":120,"traditions":124},{"id":102,"slug":103,"name":104,"sort_name":105,"birth_year":106,"death_year":107,"nationality":107,"era":107,"one_line":108,"bio":109,"portrait_url":107,"has_portrait":110,"sort_priority":111,"is_living":112,"created_at":113,"updated_at":114,"search_vector":115,"primary_role":116,"secondary_roles":117,"notable_quotes":118,"historical_tensions":119,"plcf_score":107,"mesr_score":107,"dipg_score":107,"cult_score":107,"figure_descriptor":107,"figure_class":107,"editorial_review":112},762,"adrian-vermeule","Adrian Vermeule","Vermeule, Adrian",1968,null,"Adrian Vermeule is a post-liberal Harvard legal scholar whose “common good constitutionalism” challenges originalism from the right, holding that law should serve substantive moral ends","Adrian Vermeule is an American legal scholar and professor at Harvard Law School, where his work spans administrative law, constitutional theory, and the relationship between law and political authority. Trained in the American public-law tradition, he became known for detailed studies of the administrative state, judicial deference, and the limits of legal reasoning under uncertainty. Over time his thought moved in an increasingly critical direction toward the dominant methods of conservative jurisprudence, particularly the originalism and textualism that had come to define much of the American legal right.\n\nVermeule is most closely associated with what he calls \"common good constitutionalism,\" an interpretive and political vision holding that law properly aims at substantive moral ends—order, justice, peace, and the flourishing of the community—rather than merely tracking the original meaning of legal texts or maximizing individual autonomy. Drawing on the classical legal tradition and older natural-law currents, he argues that public authority exists to direct the community toward genuine goods, and that judges and officials should read constitutional and statutory provisions in that light. This represents a self-conscious departure from the proceduralist and originalist assumptions shared by much of both American liberalism and mainstream conservatism.\n\nHis position has made him a significant and polarizing figure in debates over the future of legal conservatism. Critics on the left see in his thought an authoritarian or theocratic tendency and a willingness to subordinate liberal constraints to a favored conception of the good; critics on the originalist right argue that he abandons the discipline of text and history in favor of judicial imposition of contested moral views. Vermeule, a convert to Catholicism, is also linked to broader post-liberal intellectual currents that question whether classical liberalism can sustain a healthy political order, and he is frequently discussed alongside other thinkers skeptical of liberal proceduralism.\n\nHis influence lies less in shaping court doctrine directly than in reopening foundational questions about the purposes of law and the state within right-leaning intellectual circles. By insisting that constitutional interpretation cannot avoid substantive moral commitments, he has forced defenders of originalism, liberal neutrality, and the administrative state alike to articulate their premises more explicitly, making him a central reference point in contemporary arguments about the ends of political authority.",false,5,true,"2026-05-04T20:40:51.368746+00:00","2026-07-09T03:53:15.385492+00:00","'abandon':284C 'administr':47C,75C,386C 'adrian':1A,3B,30C 'aim':141C 'alik':388C 'alongsid':331C 'also':306C 'american':34C,62C,117C,226C 'argu':182C,281C 'argument':403C 'articul':390C 'associ':124C 'assumpt':220C 'author':58C,185C,409C 'authoritarian':258C 'autonomi':168C 'avoid':372C 'becam':68C 'broader':309C 'call':128C 'cannot':371C 'catholic':304C 'central':398C 'challeng':17B 'circl':365C 'classic':172C,318C 'close':123C 'come':111C 'commit':375C 'common':14B,129C 'communiti':154C,190C 'concept':272C 'conscious':213C 'conserv':102C 'conservat':230C,248C 'constitut':16B,49C,131C,201C,369C 'constraint':268C 'contemporari':402C 'contest':297C 'convert':302C 'court':344C 'critic':95C,249C,276C 'current':180C,314C 'debat':242C 'defend':379C 'defer':78C 'defin':113C 'departur':214C 'detail':71C 'direct':96C,188C,346C 'disciplin':286C 'discuss':330C 'doctrin':345C 'domin':99C 'draw':169C 'end':29B,145C,406C 'exist':186C 'explicit':394C 'favor':271C,292C 'figur':240C 'flourish':151C 'forc':378C 'foundat':350C 'frequent':329C 'futur':245C 'genuin':192C 'good':15B,130C,193C,275C 'harvard':10B,40C 'healthi':323C 'histori':290C 'hold':22B,137C 'imposit':295C 'increas':94C 'individu':167C 'influenc':339C 'insist':367C 'intellectu':313C,364C 'interpret':133C,370C 'judg':196C 'judici':77C,294C 'jurisprud':103C 'justic':147C 'known':69C 'law':24B,41C,48C,55C,65C,139C,179C,356C 'lean':363C 'left':252C 'legal':11B,35C,83C,118C,163C,173C,247C 'less':341C 'liber':9B,227C,267C,312C,319C,336C,382C 'lie':340C 'light':207C 'limit':81C 'link':307C 'made':234C 'mainstream':229C 'make':395C 'maxim':166C 'mean':161C 'mere':157C 'method':100C 'moral':28B,144C,298C,374C 'move':91C 'much':114C,223C 'natur':178C 'natural-law':177C 'neutral':383C 'offici':198C 'older':176C 'order':146C,325C 'origin':18B,106C,160C,381C 'originalist':219C,279C 'particular':104C 'peac':148C 'point':400C 'polar':239C 'polit':57C,135C,324C,408C 'posit':232C 'post':8B,311C 'post-liber':7B,310C 'premis':392C 'procedur':337C 'proceduralist':217C 'professor':38C 'proper':140C 'provis':204C 'public':64C,184C 'public-law':63C 'purpos':354C 'question':316C,351C 'rather':155C 'read':200C 'reason':84C 'refer':399C 'relationship':53C 'reopen':349C 'repres':209C 'right':21B,119C,280C,362C 'right-lean':361C 'scholar':12B,36C 'school':42C 'see':253C 'self':212C 'self-consci':211C 'serv':26B 'shape':343C 'share':221C 'signific':237C 'skeptic':334C 'span':46C 'state':76C,359C,387C 'statutori':203C 'studi':72C 'subordin':266C 'substant':27B,143C,373C 'sustain':321C 'tendenc':261C 'text':164C,288C 'textual':108C 'theocrat':260C 'theori':50C 'thinker':333C 'thought':90C,256C 'time':88C 'toward':97C,191C 'track':158C 'tradit':66C,174C 'train':59C 'uncertainti':86C 'vermeul':2A,4B,31C,120C,300C 'view':299C 'vision':136C 'whether':317C 'whose':13B 'willing':264C 'within':360C 'work':45C","jurist",[],[],[],[121],{"archetype_slug":32,"strength":122,"description":123},6,"Vermeule turned constitutional reading rightward and past originalism at once: a constitution, he argues, should be read toward a substantive vision of the common good, not the original intentions originalism fixes on. Your instinct that law should serve the good, not merely police procedure, has its sharpest legal form here.",[]]