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Full-Text Articles in Legal History
Statutory Retroactivity: The Founders' View, Robert G. Natelson
Statutory Retroactivity: The Founders' View, Robert G. Natelson
Robert G. Natelson
The article explains the extent to which the Founders' Constitution permitted and prohibited retroactive legislation, and the provisions in that document relevant to the question.
A Reminder: The Constitutional Values Of Sympathy And Independence, Robert G. Natelson
A Reminder: The Constitutional Values Of Sympathy And Independence, Robert G. Natelson
Robert G. Natelson
Nearly all participants in the American Founding shared constitutiona/ values of "sympathy" and "independence." According to the ideal of sympathy, government actors should mirror the full range of popular attitudes. According to the ideal of independence, voters should remain independent of other citizens and of governmental entities, and those entities should remain independent of, and competitive with, each other. Sympathy and independence were central, not peripheral, to the Founders' Constitution, so the document cannot be interpreted properly without keeping them in view. The author provides examples of how constitutional practice might be altered had these central values not been overlooked.