Madisonian Constitution

Inbunden, Engelska, 2008

Del i serien The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought

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Beskrivning

Today, we think of constitutional questions as being settled by the Supreme Court.But that is not always the case, nor is it what the framers intended in constructing the three-branch federal government. This volume examines four crucial moments in the United States' political history-the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Progressive Era, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency and the New Deal, and the Reagan revolution-to illustrate the Madisonian view that the present rise of judicial supremacy actually runs counter to the Constitution as established at the nation's founding. George Thomas opens by discussing how the Constitution encourages an antagonistic approach to settling disputes, thereby preserving itself as the nation's fundamental law rather then ceding that role to the president, Congress, or Supreme Court.In considering the four historical case studies, he focuses on judicial interpretations and the political branches' responses to them to demonstrate that competing conceptions of constitutional authority and meaning, as well as intergovernmental disputes themselves-rather than any specific outcome-strengthen the nature of the nation's founding document as a political instrument. Engagingly written and soundly argued, this study clarifies and highlights the political origins of the nation's foundational document and argues that American constitutionalism is primarily about countervailing power not legal limits enforced by courts.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2008-09-26
Mått:152 x 229 x 22 mm
Vikt:499 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:The Johns Hopkins Series in Constitutional Thought
Antal sidor:264
Förlag:Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN:9780801888526

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George Thomas is an assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. He previously taught at Williams College.

Recensioner i media

In this ambitious, densely written and thought provoking work, Thomas proposes a perspective on constitutional interpretation that is at once a normative theory of constitutional practice and a redescription of constitutional history informed by that practice. -- Douglas C. Dow Law and Politics Book Review 2009 By departing from traditional perspectives on judicial review, Professor Thomas provides an unconventional, yet refreshing and historically grounded, view of how historical constitutional conflicts have fallen squarely within Madison's vision. Harvard Law Review 2009 Thomas's book paves an important new path for the rest of us in our study of the Constitution and its effect on politics. His account of Madison's principle of constitutional contestation might well be the best account that yet exists of the reigning principle of our founder's political thought. -- Benjamin Kleinerman Review of Politics 2009 In The Madisonian Constitution, Thomas charts a philosophically grounded and historically informed course... showing that James Madison and most others responsible for framing the Constitution, as well as major statesmen who followed, had a more prudent approach in mind. -- Stanley C. Brubaker Law and Society Review 2009 The Madisonian Constitution reminds readers of that moment when, as Justice Story said, the meaning of the fundamental law was something far more important than the mere lawyers' 'extraordinary gloss' it has become. -- Gary L. McDowell Journal of American History 2009 Thomas's Madison points the way to salvation from forms of constitutionalism that either place inordinate power in a small body of elite judges and lawyers, or give up on constitutional government altogether. -- Michael P. Zuckert Claremont Review of Books 2009

Innehållsförteckning

PrefaceIntroduction1. Madison's Complex Constitutionalism2. Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Meaning of the Civil War Amendments3. The Progressive Reconstruction of American Constitutionalism4. Discontinuities in the "Constitutional Revolution of 1937"5. Unsettling the New Deal and the Return of OriginalismConclusionNotesIndex