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140th Anniversary Symposium: Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship And The Reconstruction-Era Black Public Sphere, James Fox

Con Law Center Articles and Publications

This project delves more deeply into the possible meanings of constitutional citizenship.. Somewhat in the tradition of the popular constitutionalism scholars, it proposes that the best source for meanings of constitutional citizenship will come not from traditionally originalist sources but from those who attempted to redefine citizenship in a more egalitarian and democratic manner and who established, both in word and in practice, meanings for citizenship on the ground. This argument borrows a theoretical framework from political and social theory: the theories of civil society and the public sphere. This captures—in ways often missed by both legal scholars and historians—the …