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Review: Calvin H. Johnson, Righteous Anger At The Wicked States: The Meaning Of The Founders’ Constitution, Kurt X. Metzmeier

Kurt X. Metzmeier

After nearly two centuries of scholarship, it is perhaps impossible to forward a new idea about the motivations behind the founding of the U.S. Constitution, but University of Texas law professor Calvin H. Johnson has brought a new emotion to the debate: “righteous anger.” This review examines his general thesis is that the Constitution was the result of a moral reaction to the inadequate funding of the national defense by the Continental Congress and the need for a strong central government with the power to tax. As the proponents of the “New Federalism” on the Supreme Court continue to read …