Ourselves and Our Posterity Essays in Constitutional Originalism

by Watson, Bradley C. S.; Whelan, Edward; Rossum, Ralph A.; George, Robert P.; Nowlin, Jack Wade; Franck, Matthew J.; Arkes, Hadley P.; Wolfe, Christopher; Clinton, Robert Lowry; Brubaker, Stanley C.; Kersch, Kenneth K.; Watson, Bradley C.S.

• ISBN13: 9780739127902
• ISBN10: 073912790X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-06-16
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

Arguments over constitutional interpretation increasingly highlight the full range of political, moral, and cultural fault lines in American society. Yet all the contending parties claim fealty to the Constitution. This volume brings together some of America's leading scholars of constitutional orginalism to reflect on the nature and significance of various approaches to constitutional interpretation and controversies. Throughout the book, the contributors highlight the moral and political dimensions of constitutional interpretation. In doing so, they bring constitutional interpretation and its attendant disputes down from the clouds, showing their relationship to the concerns of the citizen. In addition to matters of interpretation, the book deals with the proper role of the judiciary in a free society, the relationship of law to politics, and the relationship of constitutional originalism to the deepest concerns of political thought and philosophy. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Bradley C. S. Watson holds the Philip M. McKenna Chair in American and Western Political Thought at Saint Vincent College and is the author or editor of many books, including Civic Education and Culture, Civil Rights and the Paradox of Liberal Democracy, The West at War, and Living Constitution, Dying Faith: Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Matters of Interpretation
Original Meaning and Responsible Citizenship	p. 3
"Common-Sense Constitutionalism": Why Constitutional Structure Matters for Justice	p. 23
Originalism and the Judicial Role
Judicial Usurpation: Perennial Temptation, Contemporary Challenge	p. 49
Authority Doctrines and the Proper Judicial Role: Judicial Supremacy, State Decisis, and the Concept of Judicial Constitutional Violations	p. 61
Freedom Questions, Political Questions: Republicanism and the Myth of a "Bill of Rights"	p. 97
Law and Politics
Confirmations to the Court in Times Turned Mean: A Strategy for the Hearings	p. 127
The Supreme Court and Changing Social Mores	p. 153
Originalism and Political Thought
The Devil's Pitchfork: Scientism, Human Nature, and Modern Constitutional Thought	p. 177
A Constitution to Die For? Congressional Authority to Raise an Army	p. 217
Neoconservatives and the Courts: The Public Interest, 1965-1980	p. 247
Index	p. 297
About the Contributors	p. 303
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