Law Commons^™

Children Of Distant Fathers: Sketching An Ethos Of Constitutional Liberty, Gene R. Nichol

Faculty Publications

In this article, Professor Gene R. Nichol argues for a constitutional right to self-governance that legitimizes the court's inquiry into the nature of fundamental personal rights. He locates this right in the ninth amendment, which affords protection to unlisted liberties. The clearest statement of the American commitment to selfgovernance, he argues, is found in Thomas Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, and in the philosophy of Jeffersonian individualism. Drawing on the writing of Jefferson and Lincoln, Professor Nichol asserts that our society has committed itself to "the progressive unfolding of individual sovereignty." Critics of the United States Supreme Court's decisions that give …