Justice in Plainclothes: A Theory of American Constitutional Practice

Description

In this important book, Lawrence Sager, a leading constitutional theorist, offers a lucid understanding and compelling defense of American constitutional practice. Sager treats judges as active partners in the enterprise of securing the fundamentals of political justice, and sees the process of constitutional adjudication as a promising and distinctly democratic addition to that enterprise. But his embrace of the constitutional judiciary is not unqualified. Judges in Sager’s view should and do stop short of enforcing the whole of the Constitution; and the Supreme Court should welcome rather than condemn the efforts of Congress to pick up the slack. Among the surprising fruits of this justice-seeking account of American constitutional practice are a persuasive case for the constitutional right to secure a materially decent life and sympathy for the obduracy of the Constitution to amendment. No book can end debate in this conceptually tumultuous area; but Justice in Plainclothes is likely to help shape the ongoing debate for years to come. Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. The Puzzle of Our Constitutional Practice Chapter 1. Accounts of Our Constitutional Practice Chapter 2. Judges as Agents of the Past: The Burdens of Originalism Chapter 3. Enactment-Centered History as an Originalist Supplementation of the Text Chapter 4. Three Rescue Attempts: Lean, Middling, and Thick Chapter 5. Enter Partnership: The Justice-Seeking Account of Our Constitutional Practice Chapter 6. The Thinness of Constitutional Law and the Underenforcement Thesis Chapter 7. The Conceptual Salience of Underenforcement Chapter 8. The Domain of Constitutional Justice Chapter 9. The Birth Logic of a Democratic Constitution Chapter 10. Democracy and the Justice-Seeking Constitution Conclusion Notes Index