Does the Written Constitution Matter?

Legal scholars continue to explore the frontier of constitutional interpretation, with recent books by Ilan Wurman (The Second Founding; A Debt Against the Living), Kurt Lash (The Fourteenth Amendment and the Privileges and Immunities of American Citizenship; The Reconstruction Amendments), Randy Barnett (The Original Meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment; Our Republican Constitution), and many others. This body of scholarship seeks to uncover the “true meaning” of key provisions of the Constitution, especially the text of the 14th amendment, often through historical research or linguistic analysis. Building on the pathbreaking historical work of Charles Fairman and Raoul Berger, each successive generation tries to explicate the intent of the 39th Congress in ways that are fresh and revealing. Read Full Article »