Download or read book Constitutional Morality and the Rise of Quasi Law written by Bruce P. Frohnen and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2016-06-13 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans are ruled by an unwritten constitution consisting of executive orders, signing statements, and other quasi-laws designed to reform society, Bruce Frohnen and George Carey argue. Consequently, the Constitution no longer means what it says to the people it is supposed to govern and the government no longer acts according to the rule of law.
Download or read book On Reading the Constitution written by Laurence H. TRIBE and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-06-30 with total page 157 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our Constitution speaks in general terms of liberty and property, of the privileges and immunities of citizens, and of the equal protection of the laws--open-ended phrases that seem to invite readers to reflect in them their own visions and agendas. Yet, recognizing that the Constitution cannot be merely what its interpreters wish it to be, this volume's authors draw on literary and mathematical analogies to explore how the fundamental charter of American government should be construed today.
Download or read book Records of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 written by and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Upside Down Constitution written by Michael S. Greve and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the course of the nation’s history, the Constitution has been turned upside-down, Michael Greve argues in this provocative book. The Constitution’s vision of a federalism in which local, state, and federal government compete to satisfy the preferences of individuals has given way to a cooperative, cartelized federalism that enables interest groups to leverage power at every level for their own benefit. Greve traces this inversion from the Constitution’s founding through today, dispelling much received wisdom along the way. The Upside-Down Constitution shows how federalism’s transformation was a response to states’ demands, not an imposition on them. From the nineteenth-century judicial elaboration of a competitive federal order, to the New Deal transformation, to the contemporary Supreme Court’s impoverished understanding of constitutional structure, and the “devolution” in vogue today, Greve describes a trend that will lead to more government and fiscal profligacy, not less. Taking aim at both the progressive heirs of the New Deal and the vocal originalists of our own time, The Upside-Down Constitution explains why the current fiscal crisis will soon compel a fundamental renegotiation of a new federalism grounded in constitutional principles.
Download or read book The Second Creation written by Jonathan Gienapp and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2018-10-09 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A stunning revision of our founding document’s evolving history that forces us to confront anew the question that animated the founders so long ago: What is our Constitution? Americans widely believe that the United States Constitution was created when it was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788. But in a shrewd rereading of the Founding era, Jonathan Gienapp upends this long-held assumption, recovering the unknown story of American constitutional creation in the decade after its adoption—a story with explosive implications for current debates over constitutional originalism and interpretation. When the Constitution first appeared, it was shrouded in uncertainty. Not only was its meaning unclear, but so too was its essential nature. Was the American Constitution a written text, or something else? Was it a legal text? Was it finished or unfinished? What rules would guide its interpretation? Who would adjudicate competing readings? As political leaders put the Constitution to work, none of these questions had answers. Through vigorous debates they confronted the document’s uncertainty, and—over time—how these leaders imagined the Constitution radically changed. They had begun trying to fix, or resolve, an imperfect document, but they ended up fixing, or cementing, a very particular notion of the Constitution as a distinctively textual and historical artifact circumscribed in space and time. This means that some of the Constitution’s most definitive characteristics, ones which are often treated as innate, were only added later and were thus contingent and optional.
Download or read book Constitutional Redemption written by J. M. Balkin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-09 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Political constitutions are compromises with injustice. What makes the U.S. Constitution legitimate is Americans’ faith that the constitutional system can be made “a more perfect union.” Balkin argues that the American constitutional project is based in hope and a narrative of shared redemption, and its destiny is still over the horizon.
Download or read book Freedom s Law written by Ronald Dworkin and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 1999 with total page 438 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dworkin's important book is a collection of essays which discuss almost all of the great constitutional issues of the last two decades, including abortion, euthanasia, capital punishment, homosexuality, pornography, and free speech. Dworkin offers a consistently liberal view of the Constitution and argues that fidelity to it and to law demands that judges make moral judgments. He proposes that we all interpret the abstract language of the Constitution by reference to moral principles about political decency and justice. His 'moral reading' therefore brings political morality into the heart of constitutional law. The various chapters of this book were first published separately; now drawn together they provide the reader with a rich, full-length treatment of Dworkin's general theory of law.
Download or read book Against Constitutionalism written by Martin Loughlin and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New Statesman Book of the Year A critical analysis of the transformation of constitutionalism from an increasingly irrelevant theory of limited government into the most influential philosophy of governance in the world today. Constitutionalism is universally commended because it has never been precisely defined. Martin Loughlin argues that it is not some vague amalgam of liberal aspirations but a specific and deeply contentious governing philosophy. An Enlightenment idea that in the nineteenth century became America’s unique contribution to the philosophy of government, constitutionalism was by the mid-twentieth century widely regarded as an anachronism. Advocating separated powers and limited government, it was singularly unsuited to the political challenges of the times. But constitutionalism has since undergone a remarkable transformation, giving the Constitution an unprecedented role in society. Once treated as a practical instrument to regulate government, the Constitution has been raised to the status of civil religion, a symbolic representation of collective unity. Against Constitutionalism explains why this has happened and its far-reaching consequences. Spearheaded by a “rights revolution” that subjects governmental action to comprehensive review through abstract principles, judges acquire greatly enhanced power as oracles of the regime’s “invisible constitution.” Constitutionalism is refashioned as a theory maintaining that governmental authority rests not on collective will but on adherence to abstract standards of “public reason.” And across the world the variable practices of constitutional government have been reshaped by its precepts. Constitutionalism, Loughlin argues, now propagates the widespread belief that social progress is advanced not through politics, electoral majorities, and legislative action, but through innovative judicial interpretation. The rise of constitutionalism, commonly conflated with constitutional democracy, actually contributes to its degradation.
Download or read book Purchasing Submission written by Philip Hamburger and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From a leading constitutional scholar, an important study of a powerful mode of government control: the offer of money and other privileges to secure submission to unconstitutional power. The federal government increasingly regulates by using money and other benefits to induce private parties and states to submit to its conditions. It thereby enjoys a formidable power, which sidesteps a wide range of constitutional and political limits. Conditions are conventionally understood as a somewhat technical problem of Òunconstitutional conditionsÓÑthose that threaten constitutional rightsÑbut at stake is something much broader and more interesting. With a growing ability to offer vast sums of money and invaluable privileges such as licenses and reduced sentences, the federal government increasingly regulates by placing conditions on its generosity. In this way, it departs not only from the ConstitutionÕs rights but also from its avenues of binding power, thereby securing submission to conditions that regulate, that defeat state laws, that commandeer and reconfigure state governments, that extort, and even that turn private and state institutions into regulatory agents. The problem is expansive, including almost the full range of governance. Conditions need to be recognized as a new mode of powerÑan irregular pathwayÑby which government induces Americans to submit to a wide range of unconstitutional arrangements. Purchasing Submission is the first book to recognize this problem. It explores the danger in depth and suggests how it can be redressed with familiar and practicable legal tools.
Download or read book Congressional Record written by United States. Congress and published by . This book was released on 1968 with total page 1324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Proposed Virgin Islands Constitution from the Fifth Constitutional Convention written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Natural Resources. Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans, and Wildlife and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Revolutionary Constitutions written by Bruce Ackerman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-13 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A robust defense of democratic populism by one of America’s most renowned and controversial constitutional scholars—the award-winning author of We the People. Populism is a threat to the democratic world, fuel for demagogues and reactionary crowds—or so its critics would have us believe. But in his award-winning trilogy We the People, Bruce Ackerman showed that Americans have repeatedly rejected this view. Now he draws on a quarter century of scholarship in this essential and surprising inquiry into the origins, successes, and threats to revolutionary constitutionalism around the world. He takes us to India, South Africa, Italy, France, Poland, Burma, Israel, and Iran and provides a blow-by-blow account of the tribulations that confronted popular movements in their insurgent campaigns for constitutional democracy. Despite their many differences, populist leaders such as Nehru, Mandela, and de Gaulle encountered similar dilemmas at critical turning points, and each managed something overlooked but essential. Rather than deploy their charismatic leadership to retain power, they instead used it to confer legitimacy to the citizens and institutions of constitutional democracy. Ackerman returns to the United States in his last chapter to provide new insights into the Founders’ acts of constitutional statesmanship as they met very similar challenges to those confronting populist leaders today. In the age of Trump, the democratic system of checks and balances will not survive unless ordinary citizens rally to its defense. Revolutionary Constitutions shows how activists can learn from their predecessors’ successes and profit from their mistakes, and sets up Ackerman’s next volume, which will address how elites and insiders co-opt and destroy the momentum of revolutionary movements.
Download or read book The Living U S Constitution written by Saul K. Padover and published by Penguin. This book was released on 1995-05-01 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This invaluable book updated the study of constitutional law with the addition of twenty contemporary Supreme Court cases dealing with such controversial topics as the legislative veto, stop-and-frisk, “set asides” to benefit minorities, and hate speech. Beginning with the story of the forming of the Constitution, it includes illuminating character sketches of the delegates written by their contemporaries, as well as the complete text of the Constitution itself. The Supreme Court decisions that the author cites were selected for their variety and complexity, and because they shed light on the problems that arise under the rule of the Constitution and the interpretations of that rule. This third edition was prepared by Jacob W. Landynski, an expert on constitutional law and a longtime colleague at the New School for Social Research of the original author, the outstanding historian and political scientist Saul K. Padover. Besides adding twenty additional cases, Professor Landynski re-edited the existing cases and rewrote the case introductions throughout in order to make the book as informative and concise as possible. The result is a unique and important contribution toward understanding the document upon which our nation is founded.
Download or read book Constitutional Government in the United States written by Woodrow Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1908 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reconsidering the Insular Cases written by Gerald L. Neuman and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-25 with total page 233 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over a century ago the United States Supreme Court decided the “Insular Cases,” which limited the applicability of constitutional rights in Puerto Rico and other overseas territories. Essays in Reconsidering the Insular Cases examine the history and legacy of these cases and explore possible solutions for the dilemmas they created.
Download or read book The Ideological Origins of American Federalism written by Alison L. LaCroix and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2010-04 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this book, the author traces the history of American federal thought from its colonial beginnings in scattered provincial responses to British assertions of authority, to its emergence in the late eighteenth century as a normative theory of multilayered government. The core of this new federal ideology was a belief that multiple independent levels of government could legitimately exist within a single polity, and that such an arrangement was not a defect but a virtue.
Download or read book The Classical Liberal Constitution written by Richard A. Epstein and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-06 with total page 889 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American liberals and conservatives alike take for granted a progressive view of the Constitution that took root in the early twentieth century. Richard Epstein laments this complacency which, he believes, explains America’s current economic malaise and political gridlock. Steering clear of well-worn debates between defenders of originalism and proponents of a living Constitution, Epstein employs close textual reading, historical analysis, and political and economic theory to urge a return to the classical liberal theory of governance that animated the framers’ original text, and to the limited government this theory supports. “[An] important and learned book.” —Gary L. McDowell, Times Literary Supplement “Epstein has now produced a full-scale and full-throated defense of his unusual vision of the Constitution. This book is his magnum opus...Much of his book consists of comprehensive and exceptionally detailed accounts of how constitutional provisions ought to be understood...All of Epstein’s particular discussions are instructive, and most of them are provocative...Epstein has written a passionate, learned, and committed book.” —Cass R. Sunstein, New Republic
