Law Commons^™

Constitutional Principles, David B. Lyons

Faculty Scholarship

Principles that are not given by the constitutional text are sometimes attributed to the Constitution. This is done within Professor Balkin’s “framework originalism.”1 The question I wish to consider is how it may properly be done. How can it be shown that the Constitution is committed tacitly to a given principle? I shall discuss Balkin’s theory with that question in mind.