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Linking The Questions: Judicial Supremacy As A Matter Of Constitutional Interpretation, Tabatha Abu El-Haj

Tabatha Abu El-Haj

This Article explains that what has been missing from the debate between advocates of popular constitutionalism and defenders of judicial supremacy is any account of the practice of constitutional interpretation. Without a clear sense of what constitutional interpretation involves, we cannot assess the prevailing assumption that the Supreme Court is uniquely positioned to interpret the Constitution or explore an expertise-based justification for its claim to finality. The Article, therefore, revisits the debate about judicial supremacy by starting, not with history or politics, but with constitutional interpretation itself.

Having explored the practice of constitutional interpretation, it concludes that the Supreme Court …