Keeping Faith with the Constitution

Keeping Faith with the Constitution
Author: Goodwin Liu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 274
Release: 2010-08-05
Genre: Law
ISBN: 0199752834

Chief Justice John Marshall argued that a constitution "requires that only its great outlines should be marked [and] its important objects designated." Ours is "intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs." In recent years, Marshall's great truths have been challenged by proponents of originalism and strict construction. Such legal thinkers as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argue that the Constitution must be construed and applied as it was when the Framers wrote it. In Keeping Faith with the Constitution, three legal authorities make the case for Marshall's vision. They describe their approach as "constitutional fidelity"--not to how the Framers would have applied the Constitution, but to the text and principles of the Constitution itself. The original understanding of the text is one source of interpretation, but not the only one; to preserve the meaning and authority of the document, to keep it vital, applications of the Constitution must be shaped by precedent, historical experience, practical consequence, and societal change. The authors range across the history of constitutional interpretation to show how this approach has been the source of our greatest advances, from Brown v. Board of Education to the New Deal, from the Miranda decision to the expansion of women's rights. They delve into the complexities of voting rights, the malapportionment of legislative districts, speech freedoms, civil liberties and the War on Terror, and the evolution of checks and balances. The Constitution's framers could never have imagined DNA, global warming, or even women's equality. Yet these and many more realities shape our lives and outlook. Our Constitution will remain vital into our changing future, the authors write, if judges remain true to this rich tradition of adaptation and fidelity.

Democracy in Delaware

Democracy in Delaware
Author: Carol E. Hoffecker
Publisher: Cedar Tree Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2004
Genre: Delaware
ISBN: 9781892142238

Voting at the Political Fault Line

Voting at the Political Fault Line
Author: Bruce E. Cain
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520228337

"This is the most important and impressive collection of original research available on California's blanket primary. Its discussion of open primaries and crossover voting raises provocative issues which loom large. The findings are impressive."--Max Neiman, author of Defending Government: Why Big Government Works "Cain and Gerber have assembled a stellar cast of scholars to consider the impact of the blanket primary and important electoral change in California's politics. This is a very important book for anybody who wants to understand how institutions shape political incentives."--Bernard Grofman, author of Minority Representation and the Quest for Voting Equality "When Californians passed Proposition 198, they also provided a national stage on which the nature of state elections in general was placed in the spotlight. Cain and Gerber's Voting at the Political Fault Line is an intelligent compilation of work and assessments of the rumblings that followed and the longer-term consequences that are likely to be debated over the nature of primary elections. Its no-nonsense style and reliance on sophisticated empirical analysis highlight some counterintuitive results and illustrate highly creative applications of social science methods."--Max Neiman, author of Defending Government: Why Big Government Works