Title
Originalism and the Good Constitution / Michael B. Rappaport, John O. McGinnis.
ISBN
9780674726260
Published
Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press, [2013]
Copyright
©2013
Language
English
Language Note
In English.
Description
1 online resource (308 p.)
Other Standard Identifiers
10.4159/harvard.9780674726260 doi
Call Number
KF4552 .M34 2013eb
Dewey Decimal Classification
342.73/0011
Summary
Originalism holds that the U.S. Constitution should be interpreted according to its meaning at the time it was enacted. In their innovative defense of originalism, John McGinnis and Michael Rappaport maintain that the text of the Constitution should be adhered to by the Supreme Court because it was enacted by supermajorities--both its original enactment under Article VII and subsequent Amendments under Article V. A text approved by supermajorities has special value in a democracy because it has unusually wide support and thus tends to maximize the welfare of the greatest number. The authors recognize and respond to many possible objections. Does originalism perpetuate the dead hand of the past? How can originalism be justified, given the exclusion of African Americans and women from the Constitution and many of its subsequent Amendments? What is originalism's place in interpretation, after two hundred years of non-originalist precedent? A fascinating counterfactual they pose is this: had the Supreme Court not interpreted the Constitution so freely, perhaps the nation would have resorted to the Article V amendment process more often and with greater effect. Their book will be an important contribution to the literature on originalism, now the most prominent theory of constitutional interpretation.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
System Details Note
Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)
Frontmatter
Contents
1. Originalism: Its Discontents and the Supermajoritarian Solution
2. The Nature of the Argument
3. The Supermajoritarian Theory of Constitutionalism
4. The Compliance of the US Constitution with Desirable Supermajority Rules
5. The Continuing Desirability of an Old Supermajoritarian Constitution
6. Supermajoritarian Failure, Including the Exclusion of African Americans and Women
7. Original Methods Originalism
8. Original Methods versus Constitutional Construction
9. Precedent, Originalism, and the Constitution
10. The Normative Theory of Precedent
11. Imagining an Originalist Future
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index
