"The Partial Constitution" may well set the intellectual agenda for
constitutional scholarship in this decade. It presents a powerful
argument for reconceptualizing constitutional law. On topics
ranging from cross-burning to abortion, author>Sunstein --
Daniel A. Farber "University of Minnesota Law School"
Cass Sunstein has convincingly shown that we could reorient our
thinking about the Constitution without doing undue violence to our
basic institutions or to our constitutional history. -- Robin L.
West "Michigan Law Review"
Essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the kinds of
issues that are dominating the contemporary constitutional agenda
and to understand analytical approaches that will become more
influential as inevitable generational transformations continue.
And, depending on the contingencies of presidential decision making
(and senatorial acquiesence), it may be essential reading for
anyone trying to predict the future course of judicial construction
of the Constitution. -- Sanford Levinson "New Republic"
Professor Sunstein has written a book that is remarkable in its
intellectual ballast..."The Partial Constitution" offers a
sensitive and evocative contribution that will serve as a
foundational reference point in the need to forge a new paradigm of
constitutional scholarship. -- Gregg Ivers "Law and Politics Book
Review"
Sunstein gives new life to the oldest idea in the book of social
criticism: the complaint that we mistakenly believe our current
practices are somehow neutral or natural. What's remarkable is
Sunstein's ability to explore its intricacies, to visit a
wonderfully wide range of Supreme Court decisions and show in
fine-grained detail just how they make that mistake. This book
offers an invigorating portrait of American constitutional history
and theory. It deserves a very wide readership indeed. -- Don
Herzog "University of Michigan"
Sunstein has produced an essay that is provocative in the best
sense of that term; it provokes fresh insight, new ways of thinking
about matters that have become dull in the hands of lesser lights.
He constructs a compelling general theory of constitional
interpretation, according to which 'naked preferences' of vested
interests must give way to public values in our 'republic of
reasons'...He follows his own canon of intelligibility, writing
deftly for those familiar with the methods of constitutional
interpretation but rendering these methods accessible to readers
who may be complete neophytes. -- Edward McGlynn Gaffney, Jr.
"Commonweal"
Sunstein reorients liberalism away from an undifferentiated
distrust of government and toward a more sensitive awareness of
desirable uses and misuses of the governmental power that is an
inevitable part of modern society. The book thus constitutes a
powerful attack not only on many contemporary constitutional
understandings about topics such as freedom of speech, freedom of
the press, due process, equal protection, and the state action
principle, but also on some of the central tenets of classical and
modern liberalism. -- Frederick Schauer "Kennedy School, Harvard
University"
Sunstein sheds light on contemporary issues of free speech,
reproductive freedoms, government subsidies of art and education,
and at the same time he launches a profound invitation to shift
constitutional debate away from preoccupation with courts and
toward arenas of democratic participation. Any serious scholar of
the Constitution, and indeed, any serious citizen, should study
this important book. -- Martha Minow "Harvard Law School"
Cass Sunstein's The Partial Constitution occupies a place among the
finest work in recent constitutional theory. It unobtrusively melds
political philosophy and economics into its assessment and
criticisms of constitutional cases and trends.
abortion, affirmative action, sex discrimination, pornography,
'hate speech, ' and government funding of religious schools and the
arts.
assessment and criticisms of constitutional cases and trends.
deftly for those familiar with the methods of constitutional
interpretation but rendering these methods accessible to readers
who may be complete neophytes.
foundational reference point in the need to forge a new paradigm of
constitutional scholarship.
judicial processes to a new understanding of the Constitution.
Cass Sunstein's "The Partial Constitution" occupies a place among
the finest work in recent constitutional theory. It unobtrusively
melds political philosophy and economics into its assessment and
criticisms of constitutional cases and trends. -- Samuel Freeman
"Law and Philosophy"
Sunstein argues that contemporary constitutional law is 'partial'
because its meaning has come to be identified solely with decisions
of the Supreme Court and that it is biased because it presumes that
the status quo is neutral and just and that any departure is
necessarily partisan. Rejecting these characteristics, he conceives
basic rights such as freedom of speech, equal protection, and
privacy, and proposes new solutions to issues including abortion,
affirmative action, sex discrimination, pornography, 'hate speech,
' and government funding of religious schools and the arts.
Sunstein presents a major, new interpretation of the Constitution
and considers the bias and partial results of its present
interpretation in a lively, involving survey blending history,
politics and legal considerations.
Taking on the philosophical underpinnings of democracy as well as
the ticklish questions of pornography, abortion, welfare, free
speech, etc., this book calls all those involved in the American
political and judicial processes to a new understanding of the
Constitution.
This is a book that cries out for reading by anyone interested in
the role of law and social change, or for that matter, anyone moved
enough by the idea of democracy to vote.
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