Friday, March 24, 2017

Andrew Shankman: "What Would the Founding Fathers Make of Originalism? Not much."

Check it out here. A taste:
Andrew Shankman is Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University-Camden. His book Original Intents: Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, and the American Founding is being published by Oxford University Press in March 2017. [...]
Hamilton had a top-down and elitist conception of an open-ended and living Constitution. Statesmen and lawmakers would draw connections between desired policies and enumerated powers. Once a connection was plausibly established, they could take an action not expressly permitted by the Constitution if the Constitution did not expressly forbid it. Initially, Madison seemed to be arguing for a fixed and rarely changing Constitution. But in 1791 and 1792, as he continued to challenge Hamilton’s policies, his constitutional thinking evolved. He developed a bottom-up and democratic conception of an open-ended and living Constitution.

4 comments:

Tom Van Dyke said...

bullshit from some nobody

Hamilton was no 'living constitutionalist'

https://books.google.com/books?id=BkDCIOCJE00C&pg=PT124&lpg=PT124&dq=hamilton+%22living+constitutionalism%22&source=bl&ots=AVkwoHHzEh&sig=EEJ5IJyjC2kzQvL6G91psnme14s&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8l8_MyfPSAhVW92MKHUUqA9MQ6AEIJjAC#v=onepage&q=hamilton%20%22living%20constitutionalism%22&f=false

Jonathan Rowe said...

It's published by Oxford University Press.

Tom Van Dyke said...

that means nothing

all sorts of intellectual frauds are published by reputable academic presses

Tom Van Dyke said...

and I assure you, a degree in history does not make anyone an authority on judicial or political philosophy

and in this case, we see proof
calling Hamilton a living constitutionalist is sophomoric hackery, as the link above shows

a 20th century judicial philosophy scotch-taped onto an 18th century mind