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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Should Progressives Support The Constitution?, Steven Shiffrin
Should Progressives Support The Constitution?, Steven Shiffrin
Steven H. Shiffrin
In the closing pages of Constitutional Faith Sanford Levinson asks himself whether he would have signed the Constitution in Philadelphia, warts and all. He concludes that he would have joined the signers primarily because of a progressive faith that the evils of the Constitution would erode with time. So too, Levinson's frequent co-author J.M. Balkin, asks in the midst of a symposium on fidelity in constitutional theory, whether the present Constitution deserves our fidelity. Balkin does not deny the presence of sanctioned evil under our Constitution. He suggests, for example, that the Constitution fails to protect the poor. In so …
The Natural Born Citizen Clause As Originally Understood, Mary Brigid Mcmanamon
The Natural Born Citizen Clause As Originally Understood, Mary Brigid Mcmanamon
Mary Brigid McManamon
Article II of the Constitution requires that the President be a “natural born Citizen.” The phrase is derived from English common law, and the Supreme Court requires examination of that law to ascertain the phrase’s definition. This piece presents the pertinent English sources, combined with statements by early American jurists. Based on a reading of these materials, the article concludes that, in the eyes of the Framers, a presidential candidate must be born within the United States. The article is important because there has been a candidate that “pushed the envelope” on this question in many elections over the last …