Unintended Consequences of Constitutional Amendment

by Kyvig, David E.

• ISBN13: 9780820321912
• ISBN10: 0820321915
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-08-01
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr
• More Book Details
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Summary

Constitutional amendments, like all laws, may lead to unanticipated and even undesired outcomes. In this collection of original essays, a team of distinguished historians, political scientists, and legal scholars led by award-winning constitutional historian David E. Kyvig examines significant instances in which reform produced something other than the foreseen result. An opening essay examines the intentions of the Constitution's framers in creating an amending mechanism and then explores unexpected uses of that instrument. Thereafter, authors focus on the Bill of Rights and subsequent amendments, addressing such subjects as criminal justice procedures, the presidential election system, the Civil War's impact on race and gender relations, the experiment in national prohibition, women's suffrage, and, finally, limits on the presidency.Together these contributions illuminate aspects of constitutional stability and evolution, challenging current thinking about reform within the formal system of change provided by Article V of the Constitution. Forcefully demonstrating that constitutional law is not immune to unanticipated consequences, the eight scholars underscore the need for care, responsibility, and historical awareness in altering the nation's fundamental law.

Author Biography

David E. Kyvig is a professor of history at Northern Illinois University. He is the author of Repealing National Prohibition and Explicit and Authentic Acts: Amending the U.S. Constitution, 1776-1995, which received the 1997 Bancroft and Henry Adams Prizes.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
David E. Kyvig
Arranging for Amendment: Unintended Outcomes of Constitutional Design	9	(34)
David E. Kyvig
Lost Vision: The Bill of Rights and Criminal Procedure in American History	43	(30)
David J. Bodenhamer
The Twelfth Amendment	73	(37)
David P. Currie
Unintended Consequences of the Fourteenth Amendment	110	(31)
Richard L. Aynes
Race, Class, Gender, and the Unintended Consequences of the Fifteenth Amendment	141	(23)
Mary J. Farmer
Donald G. Nieman
Short Euphorias Followed by Long Hangovers: Unintended Consequences of the Eighteenth and Twenty-first Amendments	164	(36)
Richard F. Hamm
The Unintended Consequences of the Nineteenth Amendment: Why So Few?	200	(35)
Suzanne M. Marilley
Afterword	235	(14)
David E. Kyvig
List of Contributors	249	(2)
Index	251