Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional AmendmentSanford Levinson An increasing number of constitutional theorists, within both the legal academy and university departments of government, are focusing on the conceptual and political problems attached to the notion of constitutional amendment. Amendments are, among other things, recognitions of the imperfection of existing schemes of government. The relative ease or difficulty of amendment has significant implications for the ways that governments respond to problems that call either for new structures of governance or new powers for already established structures. This book brings together essays by leading legal authorities and political scientists on a range of questions from whether the U.S. Constitution is subject to amendment by procedures other than those authorized by Article V to how significant change is conceptualized within classical rabbinic Judaism. Though the essays are concerned for the most part with the American experience, other constitutional traditions are considered as well. |
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... second of the twelve amendments proposed by Congress in 1789, which required an intervening election before a congressional pay raise could take effect. Only the initial third through twelfth amendments were ratified by 5 INTRODUCTION.
... election as president of a foreign-born twenty-three-year old? Most analysts, I dare say, would believe this to be impossible, suggesting that this is a paradigm instance where “amendment” would be necessary and plausible ...
... Elections,62 which held that Virginia's poll tax for. 55 For Douglass's argument (which was not original with him), see “The Constitution of the United States: Is It Pro-Slavery or Anti-Slavery?” in Philip Foner, ed., The Life and ...
... elections violated the Constitution, then surely the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which two years before barred a poll tax in federal elections, was a wholly gratuitous addition to the text. Only if one agrees with Justice Harlan's ...
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Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment Sanford Levinson No preview available - 1995 |
Responding to Imperfection: The Theory and Practice of Constitutional Amendment Sanford Levinson No preview available - 1995 |