From "Brown v. Board of Education" to "Roe v. Wade" to "Bush v.
Gore," the Supreme Court has, over the past fifty years, assumed an
increasingly controversial place in American national political
life. As the recurring struggles over nominations to the Court
illustrate, few questions today divide our political community more
profoundly than those concerning the Court's proper role as
protector of liberties and guardian of the Constitution. If the
nation is today in the midst of a "culture war," the contest over
the Supreme Court is certainly one of its principal battlefields.In
this volume, distinguished constitutional scholars aim to move
debate beyond the sound bites that divide the opposing parties to
more fundamental discussions about the nature of constitutionalism.
Toward this end, the volume includes chapters on the philosophical
and historical origins of the idea of constitutionalism; on
theories of constitutionalism in American history in particular; on
the practices of constitutionalism around the globe; and on the
parallel emergence of--and the persistent tensions
between--constitutionalism and democracy throughout the modern
world.In democracies, the primary point of having a constitution is
to place some matters beyond politics and partisan contest. And yet
it seems equally clear that constitutionalism of this kind results
in a struggle over the meaning or proper interpretation of the
constitution, a struggle that is itself deeply political. Although
the volume represents a variety of viewpoints and approaches, this
struggle, which is the central paradox of constitutionalism, is the
ultimate theme of all the essays.
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