- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Introduction
-
Part One -
I. 1790: Secretary Jefferson and the Foreign Affairs Power -
II. 1791: The National Bank and the Point of Interpretation -
III. 1793: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Sovereignty -
IV. 1794: Kamper v. Hawkins and the Role of the Judiciary -
V. 1798 (1): Justice Paterson and the Missing Fundamental Principle -
Part Two -
VI. 1798 (2): How to Think about the Sedition Act -
VII. 1800: Marshall and the Role of the Political Branches -
VIII. 1802: How Not to Think about the Judiciary Repeal Act -
IX. 1804: Turpin v. Locket and the Place of Religion -
X. 1806: Hudgins v. Wright and the Place of Slavery -
XI. 1808–1809: A Forgotten Crossroads in Constitutional History -
Part Three -
XII. 1817: President Madison Vetoes His Own Bill -
XIII. 1818: The Congress Thinks about Internal Improvements -
XIV. 1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law -
XV. 1829: Writing State v. Mann -
Part Four -
XVI. 1859: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Supremacy -
XVII. 1862: Four Attorneys General and the Meaning of Citizenship -
XVIII. 1873: Slaughterhouse Revisited -
XIX. 1904: Clay May, the Railroad, and Justice Holmes -
XX. 1927: Justice Brandeis and the Final End of the State -
XXI. 1944: Constitutional Injustice -
Part Five -
XXII. 2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries - Conclusion
- Index
2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries
2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries
- Chapter:
- (p.204) XXII. 2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries
- Source:
- A Community Built on Words
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
A few ago, the distinguished philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre argued that American constitutional law is empty at its center. In any contentious constitutional case, he wrote, the Supreme Court “play[s] the role of a peace-making or truce-keeping body by negotiating its way through an impasse of conflict, not by invoking our society's shared moral first principles. For our society as a whole has none.” MacIntyre's assertion begs the question of what relationship can or ought to exist between moral first principles and the principles embodied in a constitution of government; but even with respect to constitutional law itself, MacIntyre's accusation is in error. The United States does have a set of shared constitutional first principles. This chapter attempts to identify them, even if admittedly at a very high level of generality and with no thought of exclusivity.
Keywords: constitutional law, constitutional case, Supreme Court, moral first principles, Alasdair MacIntyre, constitutional first principles
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- Title Pages
- Dedication
- Preface
- Introduction
-
Part One -
I. 1790: Secretary Jefferson and the Foreign Affairs Power -
II. 1791: The National Bank and the Point of Interpretation -
III. 1793: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Sovereignty -
IV. 1794: Kamper v. Hawkins and the Role of the Judiciary -
V. 1798 (1): Justice Paterson and the Missing Fundamental Principle -
Part Two -
VI. 1798 (2): How to Think about the Sedition Act -
VII. 1800: Marshall and the Role of the Political Branches -
VIII. 1802: How Not to Think about the Judiciary Repeal Act -
IX. 1804: Turpin v. Locket and the Place of Religion -
X. 1806: Hudgins v. Wright and the Place of Slavery -
XI. 1808–1809: A Forgotten Crossroads in Constitutional History -
Part Three -
XII. 1817: President Madison Vetoes His Own Bill -
XIII. 1818: The Congress Thinks about Internal Improvements -
XIV. 1821: The Attorney General and the Rule of Law -
XV. 1829: Writing State v. Mann -
Part Four -
XVI. 1859: The Supreme Court and the Metaphysics of Supremacy -
XVII. 1862: Four Attorneys General and the Meaning of Citizenship -
XVIII. 1873: Slaughterhouse Revisited -
XIX. 1904: Clay May, the Railroad, and Justice Holmes -
XX. 1927: Justice Brandeis and the Final End of the State -
XXI. 1944: Constitutional Injustice -
Part Five -
XXII. 2002: Common Ground after Two Centuries - Conclusion
- Index
