The Constitution in conflict / [electronic resource] Robert A. Burt.
Material type: TextPublication details: Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press, c1992.Description: 462 p. ; 25 cmISBN:- 0674165365 :
- 9780674165366
- Judicial power -- United States -- History
- United States. Supreme Court -- History
- Constitutional law -- United States
- Separation of powers -- United States -- History
- Etats-Unis Supreme Court -- Histoire
- Etats-Unis -- Histoire constitutionnelle
- Pouvoir judiciaire -- Etats-Unis -- Histoire
- United States -- Constitutional law -- Interpretation and construction
- Law courts Justice
- United States
- Scheiding der machten
- Rechterlijke macht
- Grondwetten
- Wetsinterpretatie
- Rechtsgeschiedenis (wetenschap)
- 347.73/12 347.30712 20
- KF5130 .B87 1992
- 86.50
- 86.51
Item type | Current library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
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EBooks | Main Library-Nabua | Project Gutenberg | KF5130 .B87 1992 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available |
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KF4651 .G59 1990 Constitutional diplomacy / | KF4748 .C8 1989 Cases in civil liberties / | KF4750 .H27 1958 The Bill of rights. | KF5130 .B87 1992 The Constitution in conflict / | KF538 .E85 1996 The case for same-sex marriage : from sexual liberty to civilized commitment / | KF549.Z9 C45 1991 Child support : how to get what your child needs and deserves / | KF6385.Z9 C66 1997 Brilliant deductions / |
Includes bibliographical references (p. 443-454) and index.
1. Judicial authority in principle: The constitutional question. Madison's institutional answer. Lincoln's egalitarian answer -- 2. Judicial supremacy in practice: The Marshall Court conflicts. The Black race within our bosom, the Red on our borders. The Civil War rules. Reconstructing the Constitution -- 3. Equal authority in principle and practice: An egalitarian response : Brown v. Boad of Education. Atavistic reaction : the Nixon tapes, the death penalty, and abortion. A constitutional resolution.
Lincoln was not alone in believing that the Constitution could be interpreted by any of the three branches of the government. Today, however, the Supreme Court's role as the ultimate arbiter of constitutional matters is widely accepted. But as Robert Burt shows in his provocative new book, this was not always the case, nor should it be. In a remarkably innovative reconstruction of constitutional history, Burt traces the controversy over judicial supremacy back to the founding fathers, with Madison and Hamilton as the principal antagonists. The conflicting views these founders espoused--equal interpretive powers among the federal branches on one hand and judicial supremacy on the other--remain plausible readings of "original intent" and so continue to present us with a choice. Drawing extensively on Lincoln's conception of political equality, Burt argues convincingly that judicial supremacy and majority rule are both inconsistent with the egalitarian democratic ideal. The proper task of the judiciary, he contends--as epitomized in Brown v. Board of Education--is to actively protect minorities against "enslaving" legislative defeats while, at the same time, to refrain from awarding conclusive "victory" to these minorities against their adversaries. From this premise, Burt goes on to examine key decisions such as Roe v. Wade, U.S. v. Nixon, and the death penalty cases, all of which demonstrate how the Court has fallen away from egalitarian jurisprudence and returned to an essentially authoritarian conception of its role. With an eye to the urgent issues at stake in these cases, Burt identifies the alternative results that an egalitarian conception of judicial authority would dictate. The first fully articulated presentation of the Constitution as a communally interpreted document in which the Supreme Court plays an important, but not predominant, role, The Constitution in Conflict has dramatic implications for both the theory and the practice of constitutional law.
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