Our Republican Constitution

Our Republican Constitution

Author: Randy E. Barnett

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2016-04-19

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0062412302

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A concise history of the long struggle between two fundamentally opposing constitutional traditions, from one of the nation’s leading constitutional scholars—a manifesto for renewing our constitutional republic. The Constitution of the United States begins with the words: “We the People.” But from the earliest days of the American republic, there have been two competing notions of “the People,” which lead to two very different visions of the Constitution. Those who view “We the People” collectively think popular sovereignty resides in the people as a group, which leads them to favor a “democratic” constitution that allows the “will of the people” to be expressed by majority rule. In contrast, those who think popular sovereignty resides in the people as individuals contend that a “republican” constitution is needed to secure the pre-existing inalienable rights of “We the People,” each and every one, against abuses by the majority. In Our Republican Constitution, renowned legal scholar Randy E. Barnett tells the fascinating story of how this debate arose shortly after the Revolution, leading to the adoption of a new and innovative “republican” constitution; and how the struggle over slavery led to its completion by a newly formed Republican Party. Yet soon thereafter, progressive academics and activists urged the courts to remake our Republican Constitution into a democratic one by ignoring key passes of its text. Eventually, the courts complied. Drawing from his deep knowledge of constitutional law and history, as well as his experience litigating on behalf of medical marijuana and against Obamacare, Barnett explains why “We the People” would greatly benefit from the renewal of our Republican Constitution, and how this can be accomplished in the courts and the political arena.


Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil

Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil

Author: Mark A. Graber

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2006-07-03

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 9781139457071

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Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil , first published in 2006, concerns what is entailed by pledging allegiance to a constitutional text and tradition saturated with concessions to evil. The Constitution of the United States was originally understood as an effort to mediate controversies between persons who disputed fundamental values, and did not offer a vision of the good society. In order to form a 'more perfect union' with slaveholders, late-eighteenth-century citizens fashioned a constitution that plainly compelled some injustices and was silent or ambiguous on other questions of fundamental right. This constitutional relationship could survive only as long as a bisectional consensus was required to resolve all constitutional questions not settled in 1787. Dred Scott challenges persons committed to human freedom to determine whether antislavery northerners should have provided more accommodations for slavery than were constitutionally strictly necessary or risked the enormous destruction of life and property that preceded Lincoln's new birth of freedom.


Originalism in American Law and Politics

Originalism in American Law and Politics

Author: Johnathan O'Neill

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2005-07-12

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 9780801881114

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This book explains how the debate over originalism emerged from the interaction of constitutional theory, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and American political development. Refuting the contention that originalism is a recent concoction of political conservatives like Robert Bork, Johnathan O'Neill asserts that recent appeals to the origin of the Constitution in Supreme Court decisions and commentary, especially by Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, continue an established pattern in American history. Originalism in American Law and Politics is distinguished by its historical approach to the topic. Drawing on constitutional commentary and treatises, Supreme Court and lower federal court opinions, congressional hearings, and scholarly monographs, O'Neill's work will be valuable to historians, academic lawyers, and political scientists.


German Constitutional Law

German Constitutional Law

Author: Christian Bumke

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-02-06

Total Pages: 606

ISBN-13: 0192535617

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This revised and fully up-to-date English translation of the 7th edition of the Casebook Verfassungsrecht includes a new outline of the German constitution, the BVerfG Court, and its jurisprudence. It condenses more than six decades of constitutional jurisprudence in order to familiarize readers with the style, technique, and language of the Court. As well as an analysis of the general principles of German constitutional law, the book covers the salient articles of the German Constitution and offers relevant extracts of the Court's most important decisions on the provisions of the Basic Law. It provides notes and discussions of landmark cases to illustrate their legal and historical context and give the reader a clear understanding of the principles governing German constitutional law. The book covers the fundamental rights catalogue of the Basic Law and offers a comprehensive account of its intellectual moorings. It includes landmark jurisprudence on the equal treatment of same-sex couples, life imprisonment, the legal structure of property, the right to assembly, and the right to informational self-presentation. The book also covers the provisions and respective case law governing the state structure of Germany, for instance the recent decisions on the prohibition of the far-right German nationalist party, and the Court's jurisprudence on European integration, including the most recent decisions on the OMT-program of the European Central Bank.


The Heritage Guide to the Constitution

The Heritage Guide to the Constitution

Author: David F. Forte

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2014-09-16

Total Pages: 644

ISBN-13: 1621573524

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A landmark work of more than one hundred scholars, The Heritage Guide to the Constitution is a unique line-by-line analysis explaining every clause of America's founding charter and its contemporary meaning. In this fully revised second edition, leading scholars in law, history, and public policy offer more than two hundred updated and incisive essays on every clause of the Constitution. From the stirring words of the Preamble to the Twenty-seventh Amendment, you will gain new insights into the ideas that made America, important debates that continue from our Founding, and the Constitution's true meaning for our nation


That Every Man Be Armed

That Every Man Be Armed

Author: Stephen P. Halbrook

Publisher: UNM Press

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 0826352995

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That Every Man Be Armed, the first scholarly book on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, has played a significant role in constitutional debate and litigation since it was first published in 1984. Halbrook traces the right to bear arms from ancient Greece and Rome to the English republicans, then to the American Revolution and Constitution, through the Reconstruction period extending the right to African Americans, and onward to today’s controversies. With reviews of recent literature and court decisions, this new edition ensures that Halbrook’s study remains the most comprehensive general work on the right to keep and bear arms.


Commentaries on the Constitution, 1790-1860

Commentaries on the Constitution, 1790-1860

Author: Elizabeth Kelley Bauer

Publisher: The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd.

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 402

ISBN-13: 1886363668

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Bauer, Elizabeth Kelley. Commentaries on the Constitution 1790-1860. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952. 400 pp. Reprinted 1999 by The Lawbook Exchange, Ltd. LCCN 98-45409. ISBN 1-886363-66-8. Cloth. $95. * A thorough survey and examination of the "formal commentaries" on the Constitution that were written as summaries of official pronouncements by proponents of the two major schools of constitutional interpretation before the Civil War--the nationalist Northern school as evidenced by the Marshall-Story decisions in the Supreme Court, and the Southern states rights advocates who lacked an equal spokesman. As this important study places the commentaries in a historical context by comparing their theories, examining their impact and their roots in the lives of the authors, it serves to illustrate "the early divergence between the North and South in theoretical discussions of the nature of the Union, and eventually lead to the constitutional justification of Southern secession." From the Preface.