Description
Book SynopsisChief Justice John Marshall argued that a constitution requires that only its great outlines should be marked [and] its important objects designated. Ours is intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs. In recent years, Marshall''s great truths have been supplanted by originalism and strict construction. Such legal thinkers as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia argue that the Constitution must be construed as it was in the eighteenth century--that judges must adhere to the original understandings of the founding law. In Keeping Faith with the Constitution, three legal authorities make the case for Marshall''s vision. They describe their approach as constitutional fidelity--not to the indecipherable intent of the framers, but to the principles of the Constitution. The original understanding of the text is one source of interpretation, but not the only one; to preserve the meaning and authority of the document, to keep it
