A Principled Constitution?: Four Skeptical Views

Steven D. Smith; Larry Alexander; James Allan; Maimon Schwarzschild

doi:10.5771/9781666911480

Summary

Is the United States Constitution the embodiment of certain principles? The four authors of this book for a variety of reasons, and with somewhat different emphases, believe the answer is no. Those who authored the Constitution no doubt all believed in liberty, equality, and, with caveats, republican self-government values, or if you will, principles. But they had different conceptions of those principles and what those principles entailed for constituting a government. Although the Constitution they created reflected, in some sense, their principles, the Constitution itself was a specific list of do’s and don’ts that its creators hoped would gain the allegiance of the newly independent and sovereign states. And, for somewhat different reasons, the authors of this book believe that was a good thing.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2022
Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-6669-1147-3
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-1148-0
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 114
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. Acknowledgments No access
1. Introduction No access
2. Unpretentious Beginnings No access
1. The Not-Your-Ancestors’ Principle-Plush Constitution No access
2. So You Think You Want a Constitution of Principles No access
3. Mushy Constitutional Principles Enabling Puffed-Up Judicial Policymaking No access
4. The Power—and Peril—of Principle No access
Bibliography No access Pages 103 - 108
Index No access Pages 109 - 112
About the Authors No access Pages 113 - 114