Implementing the Constitution / Richard H. Fallon, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fallon, Jr., Richard H., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Constitutional law--United States.

Constitutional law.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (196 p.)

Edition:

Reprint 2014

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book argues that the Supreme Court performs two functions. The first is to identify the Constitution's idealized "meaning." The second is to develop tests and doctrines to realize that meaning in practice. Bridging the gap between the two--implementing the Constitution--requires moral vision, but also practical wisdom and common sense, ingenuity, and occasionally a willingness to make compromises. In emphasizing the Court's responsibility to make practical judgments, Implementing the Constitution takes issue with the two positions that have dominated recent debates about the Court's proper role. Constitutional "originalists" maintain that the Court's essential function is to identify the "original understanding" of constitutional language and then apply it deductively to current problems. This position is both unwise and unworkable, the book argues. It also critiques well-known accounts according to which the Court is concerned almost exclusively with matters of moral and constitutional principle. Implementing the Constitution bridges the worlds of constitutional theory, political theory, and constitutional practice. It illuminates the Supreme Court's decision of actual cases and its development of well-known doctrines. It is a doctrinal study that yields jurisprudential insights and a contribution to constitutional theory that is closely tied to actual judicial practice.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Supreme Court's Disputed Role

CHAPTER 1. Originalism

CHAPTER 2. The Supreme Court as the Forum of Principle

CHAPTER 3. Constitutional Implementation

CHAPTER 4. Extraordinary Adjudication

CHAPTER 5. Doctrinal Tests and the Constitution

CHAPTER 6. Ordinary Adjudication

CHAPTER 7. Legitimacy and the Unwritten Constitution

CHAPTER 8. Against Populism and Methodological Pragmatism

Conclusion: Beyond History and Philosophy

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

0-674-41927-8

OCLC:

979576139