- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226238081
- eISBN:
- 9780226238104
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226238104.003.0005
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter describes an interpretive strategy, and looks at the substantive agenda of Akhil Amar from Yale Law School who can be described as one of the first liberal foundationalists. He ...
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This chapter describes an interpretive strategy, and looks at the substantive agenda of Akhil Amar from Yale Law School who can be described as one of the first liberal foundationalists. He interprets the Constitution to allow freewheeling majority rule, including a right to amend the Constitution without following the rules laid down in Article V. Amar, who is one of the leading constitutional scholars of his generation, calls the interpretive approach that leads to these striking results “intratextualism” or “documentarianism.” He is the only constitutional scholar who has ever tried to defend the Court's reasoning on textual grounds. Therefore, his focus on popular sovereignty and his peculiar reading of the text puts juries at the center of protecting rights, and judges at the periphery.Less
This chapter describes an interpretive strategy, and looks at the substantive agenda of Akhil Amar from Yale Law School who can be described as one of the first liberal foundationalists. He interprets the Constitution to allow freewheeling majority rule, including a right to amend the Constitution without following the rules laid down in Article V. Amar, who is one of the leading constitutional scholars of his generation, calls the interpretive approach that leads to these striking results “intratextualism” or “documentarianism.” He is the only constitutional scholar who has ever tried to defend the Court's reasoning on textual grounds. Therefore, his focus on popular sovereignty and his peculiar reading of the text puts juries at the center of protecting rights, and judges at the periphery.
Sanford Levinson
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- April 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199890750
- eISBN:
- 9780190260088
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199890750.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
This chapter focuses on the United States's presidential form of government at the national level and the gubernatorial form at the state level. It first describes the defining features of ...
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This chapter focuses on the United States's presidential form of government at the national level and the gubernatorial form at the state level. It first describes the defining features of presidentialism and gubernatorialism as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution before turning to a discussion of the electoral college and why it was adopted at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, along with the views of Alexander Hamilton and Akhil Amar regarding the electoral college as a means of choosing a president. It then considers the importance of state autonomy concerning voting rules, the Twelfth Amendment as the legitimation of the party system, why the electoral college survives, and proposed changes to the electoral college. Finally, it examines the FairVote proposal to reform the system by which presidents are elected.Less
This chapter focuses on the United States's presidential form of government at the national level and the gubernatorial form at the state level. It first describes the defining features of presidentialism and gubernatorialism as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution before turning to a discussion of the electoral college and why it was adopted at the 1787 Philadelphia Convention, along with the views of Alexander Hamilton and Akhil Amar regarding the electoral college as a means of choosing a president. It then considers the importance of state autonomy concerning voting rules, the Twelfth Amendment as the legitimation of the party system, why the electoral college survives, and proposed changes to the electoral college. Finally, it examines the FairVote proposal to reform the system by which presidents are elected.
