To Secure These Rights : : The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation / / Scott Douglas Gerber.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Archive eBook-Package Pre-2000
• VerfasserIn: Gerber, Scott Douglas,
• MitwirkendeR: Abraham, Henry J.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [1995]; ©1995
• Year of Publication: 1995
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

To Secure These Rights enters the fascinating--and often contentious--debate over constitutional interpretation. Scott Douglas Gerber here argues that the Constitution of the United States should be interpreted in light of the natural rights political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence and that the Supreme Court is the institution of American government that should be primarily responsible for identifying and applying that philosophy in American life.Importantly, the theory advanced in this book--what Gerber calls liberal originalism--is neither consistently liberal nor consistently conservative in the modern conception of those terms. Rather, the theory is liberal in the classic sense of viewing the basic purpose of government to be safeguarding the natural rights of individuals. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. In essence, Gerber maintains that the Declaration articulates the philosophical ends of our nation and that the Constitution embodies the means to effectuate those ends. Gerber's analysis reveals that the Constitution cannot be properly understood without recourse to history, political philosophy, and law.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Introduction: Liberal Originalism -- I. The Jurisprudence of the American Founding -- 1 The Declaration of Independence -- 2 The Constitution of the United States -- II Natural Rights and the Role of the Court -- 3 The Court -- 4 Checks on the Court -- 5 Constitutional Interpretation -- Conclusion: A New American Revolution? -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index