Storm Over the ConstitutionWritten by one of America's foremost political and legal theorists, Storm Over the Constitution examines the arguments of some of the leading proponents of the doctrine of 'original intent.' According to legal scholars such as Judge Robert Bork, Lino Gralia, Charles Cooper, and Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, a jurisprudence of original intent requires that judges bring no theory to the interpretation of the Constitution. In this brilliant new book, Harry Jaffa illustrates how judges under the influence of this definition of 'original' intent particularly neglect the Declaration of Independence as a guide. Jaffa shows that this definition is, from the point of view of the American Founding, anything but original; moreover, it is openly hostile to the natural-rights theory of those who wrote and ratified the Constitution. The author implores Americans to follow the example set by Abraham Lincoln, who admired the Declaration of Independence more openly, interpreted it more deeply, and implemented it more practically than any other president before or since. Lincoln's achievement fulfilled a tradition of civic understanding and scholarship closer in time and purpose to the founders, and was thus more 'original.' |
From inside the book
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Page xx
... society as a voluntary association , lays a firmer foundation for the idea of the rule of law than in Aristotle's Politics . 8 Thus the direct appeal to nature - unmediated by theological author- ity - provides the ground for the ...
... society as a voluntary association , lays a firmer foundation for the idea of the rule of law than in Aristotle's Politics . 8 Thus the direct appeal to nature - unmediated by theological author- ity - provides the ground for the ...
Page xxiii
... society wholly unknown to the classics , a kind of society to which the classical principles as stated and elaborated by the classics are not immediately ap- plicable . Only we living today can possibly find a solution to the problems ...
... society wholly unknown to the classics , a kind of society to which the classical principles as stated and elaborated by the classics are not immediately ap- plicable . Only we living today can possibly find a solution to the problems ...
Page xxviii
... society to the individual . Rights are conferred by government , they do not exist prior to the advent of government thus there can be no " unenumerated rights . " Bork's confusion is amply illustrated by his recent statement that " [ i ] ...
... society to the individual . Rights are conferred by government , they do not exist prior to the advent of government thus there can be no " unenumerated rights . " Bork's confusion is amply illustrated by his recent statement that " [ i ] ...
Page xxxiv
... society . Yet the plethora of his- torical evidence is disputed by Bork and his epigones ; they find no evi- dence that the Framers relied on the Declaration in drafting the Consti- tution , nor any indication that they intended the ...
... society . Yet the plethora of his- torical evidence is disputed by Bork and his epigones ; they find no evi- dence that the Framers relied on the Declaration in drafting the Consti- tution , nor any indication that they intended the ...
Page xxxix
... society , or there is no essential need for the dilution of natural right . As far as the necessity of " dilution ” in Platonic natural right , Strauss makes reference , not only to the obvious case of the Republic , but also to Plato's ...
... society , or there is no essential need for the dilution of natural right . As far as the necessity of " dilution ” in Platonic natural right , Strauss makes reference , not only to the obvious case of the Republic , but also to Plato's ...
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Common terms and phrases
American antebellum argument Article assertion authority Bork's Borkian Chief Justice citizens compromises Congress consent Constitution of 1787 constitutional interpretation constitutional right constitutionalism Cooper created equal Declaration of Independence denied derived doctrine document Dred Scott due process clause federal government Federalist Fifth Amendment Fourteenth Amendment freedom Fugitive Slave Clause Graglia ground guarantee human incorporated individual Jaffa says Judge Bork judicial activism jurisprudence of original Justice Rehnquist laws of nature legal positivism legislative liberal liberty Lincoln Lino Graglia Madison and Jefferson majority meaning Meese ment moral natural justice natural law natural right Negroes Northwest Ordinance opinion in Dred original intent originalist person platform of 1860 political philosophy positive law protection question reason recognized resolution right of slave rule safeguards Scalia slave ownership slavery society stitution Strauss substantive due process Supreme Court Taney Taney's opinion Tempting of America theory tion unalienable rights understanding Union violations Virginia words