Justice in plainclothes : a theory of American constitutional practice / Lawrence G. Sager.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sager, Lawrence G.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional law--United States.

Constitutional law.

Political questions and judicial power--United States.

Political questions and judicial power.

Judicial process--United States.

Judicial process.

United States--Politics and government.

United States.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (272 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven, CT : Yale University, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In this important book, Lawrence Sager, a leading constitutional theorist, offers a lucid understanding and compelling defense of American constitutional practice. Sager treats judges as active partners in the enterprise of securing the fundamentals of political justice, and sees the process of constitutional adjudication as a promising and distinctly democratic addition to that enterprise. But his embrace of the constitutional judiciary is not unqualified. Judges in Sager's view should and do stop short of enforcing the whole of the Constitution; and the Supreme Court should welcome rather than condemn the efforts of Congress to pick up the slack. Among the surprising fruits of this justice-seeking account of American constitutional practice are a persuasive case for the constitutional right to secure a materially decent life and sympathy for the obduracy of the Constitution to amendment. No book can end debate in this conceptually tumultuous area; but Justice in Plainclothes is likely to help shape the ongoing debate for years to come.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. The Puzzle of Our Constitutional Practice

Chapter 1. Accounts of Our Constitutional Practice

Chapter 2. Judges as Agents of the Past: The Burdens of Originalism

Chapter 3. Enactment-Centered History as an Originalist Supplementation of the Text

Chapter 4. Three Rescue Attempts: Lean, Middling, and Thick

Chapter 5. Enter Partnership: The Justice-Seeking Account of Our Constitutional Practice

Chapter 6. The Thinness of Constitutional Law and the Underenforcement Thesis

Chapter 7. The Conceptual Salience of Underenforcement

Chapter 8. The Domain of Constitutional Justice

Chapter 9. The Birth Logic of a Democratic Constitution

Chapter 10. Democracy and the Justice-Seeking Constitution

Conclusion

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-239) and index.

ISBN:

9786611729523

9781281729521

1281729523

9780300129199

030012919X

OCLC:

952732036