Liberty Under Law American Constitutionalism, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

by Grasso, Kenneth L.; Castillo, Cecelia Rodriquez

• ISBN13: 9780761806912
• ISBN10: 0761806911
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-01-23
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

In recent decades, we have witnessed the emergence of ongoing public arguments about the intellectual and cultural foundations of our constitutional system; the norms governing constitutional interpretation and the proper role of the judiciary in this system; and the proper interpretation of certain key provisions of our fundamental law. Seen in this light, constitutional controversies of the type we are experiencing today threaten to engulf our political system in a crisis of the first magnitude. These controversies are the subject of these essays. To the extent that governmental actions are perceived by large numbers of Americans to lack constitutional warrant the result can only be the progressive erosion of the moral authority of our constitutional system. The book is divided into three parts; the contributors in the first section address the question of the intellectual foundations and cultural preconditions of the American constitutional commonwealth; in the second they discuss the ongoing debate between the proponents of an originalist approach to constitutional interpretation and their nonoriginalist critics; and in the final section they examine several contemporary controversies over the meaning of specific constitutional provisions. These essays represent serious contributions to a number of critically important scholarly debates. Contributors: Randall W. Bland, Thomas L. Pangle, Francis Canavan, S.J., Jean Bethke Elshtain, Robert Booth Fowler, William Gangi, Gerard V. Bradley, Christopher Wolfe, Sanford Levinson, Robert Scigliano, Robert J. Spitzer, Thomas G. West, George Weigel, David G. Dalin, and Herman Belz. Co-published with the Project on American Constitutionalism, Southwest Texas State University (SWT).

Table of Contents

Preface	v	(2)
Introduction	vii
Randall W. Bland
Part I: American Constitutionalism: Theoretical Foundations and Cultural Preconditions	1	(50)
Chapter 1 The Achievement of the Constitution, as Viewed by the Leading Federalists	1	(12)
Thomas L. Pangle
Chapter 2 Burke and the Problem of Constitutional Liberty	13	(12)
Francis Canavan, S.J.
Chapter 3 The City, The Law and the Civic Philosopher	25	(12)
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Chapter 4 The Constitution of Religion and American Culture	37	(14)
Robert Booth Fowler
Part II: Constitutional Interpretation: Originalism and Its Critics	51	(70)
Chapter 5 The Judicial Power: A View From The Federalist Papers	51	(26)
William Gangi
Chapter 6 Originalism and Criminal Procedure	77	(10)
Gerard V. Bradley
Chapter 7 When Constitution and Precedent Collide	87	(18)
Christopher Wolfe
Chapter 8 The Operational Irrelevance of Originalism	105	(16)
Sanford Levinson
Part III: Contemporary Issues in American Constitutionalism	121	(94)
Chapter 9 The New Understanding of the President's War Power	121	(18)
Robert Scigliano
Chapter 10 From Presidential Shield to `Go Ahead, Make My Day': The Presidential Veto and the Constitutional Balance of Power	139	(10)
Robert J. Spitzer
Chapter 11 The Decline of Free Speech in Twentieth-Century American: The View from the Founding	149	(24)
Thomas G. West
Chapter 12 The First Freedom Today: Church and State in Contemporary America	173	(12)
George Weigel
Chapter 13 How High the Wall?: American Jews and the Church-State Debate	185	(16)
David G. Dalin
Chapter 14 Affirmative Action and American Equality: A Constitutionalist Perspective	201	(14)
Herman Belz
About the Editors	215	(2)
About the Contributors	217