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The Government Of The Living-The Legacy Of The Dead, Jon C. Blue
The Government Of The Living-The Legacy Of The Dead, Jon C. Blue
University of Richmond Law Review
Akhil Amar has written a stunning book about what he calls "the high temple of our constitutional order"-the Bill of Rights. The temple metaphor is revealing, for it is evident throughout his book that Professor Amar views the Constitution as a sanctified structure, the use of which is to be determined by a holistic study of the original blueprints and the surviving comments of the long-dead architects. This characterization is complicated but not fundamentally changed by the fact that Amar's story is, as the subtitle of the book proclaims, one of "creation and reconstruction." The creation is that of the …
The Bill Of Rights As An Exclamation Point, Gary Lawson
The Bill Of Rights As An Exclamation Point, Gary Lawson
University of Richmond Law Review
Akhil Amar's The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights") is one of the best law books of the twentieth century. That is not surprising, as it grows out of two of the best law review articles of the twentieth century and was written by one of the century's premier legal scholars. I have been an unabashed Akhil Amar fan ever since our overlapping law school days more than fifteen years ago, and I am thrilled to have my perspicacity and good judgment vindicated by the publication of this remarkable work.
The Constitution As A Whole: A Partial Political Science Perspective, Mark A. Graber
The Constitution As A Whole: A Partial Political Science Perspective, Mark A. Graber
University of Richmond Law Review
The Bill of Rights: Creationand Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights")' is a professionally rewarding and disturbing masterpiece. The work is professionally rewarding because Professor Akhil Amar develops a meticulously detailed, historically sophisticated, and largely persuasive account of how the liberties set out in the Bill of Rights were originally understood and the original relationship between the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment. This is state of the art legal scholarship that will no doubt influence the way the next generation of constitutional lawyers and historians study fundamental constitutional rights. Professor Amar's book is professionally disturbing in part because, having …
Refined Incorporation And The Fourteenth Amendment, Richard L. Aynes
Refined Incorporation And The Fourteenth Amendment, Richard L. Aynes
University of Richmond Law Review
In Professor Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction, the voices of Founders, Federalists, Anti-Federalists, promoters of the Bill of Rights, contrarians of Barron v. Mayor of Baltimore, abolitionists, antislavery advocates, Fourteenth Amendment Republican Framers, ratifiers, and twentieth-century U.S. Supreme Court justices, all have their role. If they do not sing the same tune, at least their voices, under Amar's skillful direction, whether melody or harmony, alto or soprano, all harmonize to produce a clear song.
Preface, John P. Cunningham
Preface, John P. Cunningham
University of Richmond Law Review
The University of Richmond Law Review is extremely pleased to present this special issue dedicated to Professor Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. The purpose of the issue is to celebrate the groundbreaking nature of Professor Amar's contemporary text by providing a collection of eleven scholarly commentaries in which some of the finest constitutional jurists in the United States react to the book. The commentators each offer a unique perspective on the dynamic text, utilizing legal, judicial, historical, philosophical, and even esoteric influences to analyze its contents. In an eloquent response to his academic peers, Continuing …
We Some Of The People: Akhil Reed Amor And The Original Intent Of The Bill Of Rights, Wythe Holt
We Some Of The People: Akhil Reed Amor And The Original Intent Of The Bill Of Rights, Wythe Holt
University of Richmond Law Review
The Leninist model of working-class consciousness and that of the Commons/Perlman progressive school of labor economists have much in common. Both regard the intellectual as playing a crucial role in changing the workers' consciousness.
Akhil Amar And The Establishment Clause, Andrew Koppelman
Akhil Amar And The Establishment Clause, Andrew Koppelman
University of Richmond Law Review
Does Akhil Amar's The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights") say anything about what the law should be today? The answer is not clear. The book is a study of the original meaning of the Bill of Rights and the transformation of that meaning by the Fourteenth Amendment. Its project is archaeological rather than prescriptive. It focuses on what the Constitution meant in 1791 and in 1866, not what it means now. Amar acknowledges that he has "merely set the scene" for an investigation into what impact twentieth-century (textual and other) developments have had on Constitutional …
Two Movements Of A Constitutional Symphony: Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill Of Rights, Kurt T. Lash
Two Movements Of A Constitutional Symphony: Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill Of Rights, Kurt T. Lash
University of Richmond Law Review
A remarkable effort is afoot to justify American constitutional law at the end of the twentieth century. Ground zero in this effort is Yale Law School, and the principle architects are professors Akhil Reed Amar and Bruce Ackerman. Together, these scholars are calling for a reevaluation of commonly accepted doctrines with the goal of grounding judicial review and constitutional interpretation on the principles of popular sovereignty. What makes the effort remarkable is its emphasis on political morality, as opposed to the attainment of a particular doctrinal end. Take, for example, Amar's explanation of his purpose in writing The Bill of …
The Original Understanding Of The Seventh Amendment Right To Jury Trial, Stanton D. Krauss
The Original Understanding Of The Seventh Amendment Right To Jury Trial, Stanton D. Krauss
University of Richmond Law Review
I ought to be very angry with my friend Akhil Amar. His new book, The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction, strengthens, develops, and popularizes his strikingly original claim that the meaning of our Bill of Rights must be sought in the understanding of the people who enacted the Fourteenth Amendment, rather than that of James Madison and his contemporaries. If Akhil carries the day on this question-and I find his arguments quite powerful, my ongoing research into the original meaning of the Bill will be of interest only to antiquarians.
Response: Continuing The Conversation, Akhil Reed Amar
Response: Continuing The Conversation, Akhil Reed Amar
University of Richmond Law Review
In The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction, I aimed to start a conversation, not end one. I am thus grateful for the generosity of the many fine scholars who in the preceding pages have graciously accepted the invitation to converse. And I am especially grateful for the extraordinary hospitality of the University of Richmond Law Review, which has kindly given a home to this conversation.
"No Word Is An Island": Textualism And Aesthetics In Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill Of Rights, Robert Spoo
"No Word Is An Island": Textualism And Aesthetics In Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill Of Rights, Robert Spoo
University of Richmond Law Review
Akhil Reed Amar's The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction ("The Bill of Rights") probes three defining moments of American constitutional history-two of them in the contested past and one in the restless present. The first two are the performative acts of framing, in 1789 and 1868, respectively, of the initial ten amendments and of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. For Amar, history is too multivalent, and the Framers' text too loftily open-textured, for simple answers to the vexed question of incorporation. The Bill of Rights is, in one of Amar's controlling metaphors, an "alloy" of majoritarian …