Desperately Seeking Certainty: The Misguided Quest for Constitutional FoundationsIrreverent, provocative, and engaging, Desperately Seeking Certainty attacks the current legal vogue for grand unified theories of constitutional interpretation. On both the Right and the Left, prominent legal scholars are attempting to build all of constitutional law from a single foundational idea. Dan Farber and Suzanna Sherry find that in the end no single, all-encompassing theory can successfully guide judges or provide definitive or even sensible answers to every constitutional question. Their book brilliantly reveals how problematic foundationalism is and shows how the pragmatic, multifaceted common law methods already used by the Court provide a far better means of reaching sound decisions and controlling judicial discretion than do any of the grand theories. |
Contents
1 | |
Robert Bork and Other Originalists | 10 |
3 The Formalist Crusade of Antonin Scalia | 29 |
4 Richard Epstein and the Incredible Shrinking Government | 55 |
5 Akhil Amar and the Peoples Court | 75 |
6 Bruce Ackermans Magic Amendment Machine | 97 |
Other editions - View all
Desperately Seeking Certainty: The Misguided Quest for Constitutional ... Daniel A. Farber,Suzanna Sherry No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
Ackerman affirmative action Akhil Amar Akhil Reed Amar Amar’s American Antonin Scalia argues argument Bill of Rights Bork Bork’s Bruce Ackerman Calabresi chapter Commerce Clause common law concept conflict Congress consti constitutional interpretation constitutional law constitutional politics Constitutional Theory constitutionalism conventional countermajoritarian difficulty Deal debate decisions defined democracy democratic doctrine Dworkin Easterbrook Equal Protection example federal government Federalist find first fit flaws founders Fourteenth Amendment framers grand theory Hand’s Harv higher lawmaking historical evidence historical record individual rights influence intratextualism judges judicial review Justice Scalia latkes legislation legitimacy Madison majoritarian majority McConnell meaning ment Michael Ninth Amendment officials opinion original intent original understanding originalist popular sovereignty practice principle racial ratified Reconstruction reflected regulation Republican Richard Epstein role Ronald Dworkin rule says scholarship seems Senate significant specific speech statute supra note Supreme Court Suzanna Sherry textual theorists tion tional tradition tutional Yale L.J.
References to this book
Religion and the Domestication of Dissent, Or, How to Live in a Less Than ... Russell T. McCutcheon No preview available - 2005 |