Authors: Louis Michael Seidman, Louis Michael Seidman, Mark V. Tushnet, Louis M. Seidman
ISBN-13: 9780195099805, ISBN-10: 019509980X
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Date Published: March 1996
Edition: 1st Edition
Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Popular debate about constitutional issues such as abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, and free speech, has become increasingly polarized, with a persistent and growing tendency to treat constitutional questions such as these as if they were easy and the answers obvious. In Remnants of Belief: Contemporary Constitutional Issues, Seidman and Tushnet investigate this phenomenon, tracing its beginning to the transformation of American government that accompanied the New Deal revolution over a half century ago. In their investigation, the authors examine the debates on issues such as free speech, criminal procedure, discrimination, and capital punishment, and the views of prominent figures in the field such as Robert Bork, Laurence Tribe, and Cass Sunstein. The book explores popular constitutional argument and suggests some common reasons why all sides of modern constitutional debate are unsatisfactory. It explores the reasons why constitutional argument has ceased to serve its primary function: to bridge the gaps between citizens by appealing to the principles that unite them.
1 | Introduction: Hard Questions, Easy Answers | 3 |
2 | The Origins of the Current Situation | 26 |
3 | The State Action Paradox | 49 |
4 | Burdens, Benefits, and Baselines | 72 |
5 | Racial Equality and the Rhetoric of Nondiscrimination | 91 |
6 | Pornography and the Financing of Political Campaigns | 117 |
7 | Death and the Constitution | 140 |
8 | The Structural Constitution | 166 |
9 | Conclusion: The Case for Skeptical Commitment | 190 |
Bibliographic Essay | 203 | |
Table of Cases | 217 | |
Index | 219 |