Approaching the U.S. Constitution - by Kerry L Hunter (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book argues that, given the political power the Supreme Court enjoys today, the answer to preserving the separation of powers, democracy, and the American commitment to unalienable human rights is to encourage the Court to intentionally serve as the nation's collective co...

Book Synopsis

This book argues that, given the political power the Supreme Court enjoys today, the answer to preserving the separation of powers, democracy, and the American commitment to unalienable human rights is to encourage the Court to intentionally serve as the nation's collective conscience, just as it did in Brown v. Board of Education.

Review Quotes

America's litigious excesses may be inhibiting rather than advancing the cause of justice, argues Kerry Hunter. In an inventive new approach, Hunter grapples with the central question of how we conceive of our Constitution, and who, by rights, may lay claim to its interpretation. Drawing on the case of New Zealand, where courts lack judicial review, and infusing a fresh view of Alexander Hamilton, Hunter rightly warns us that legal sophistry is not only no substitute for, but may be inimical to, American justice.

Hunter believes that judges should focus less on legal technicalities and more on natural law principles, which he believes undergird the US Constitution (and, he observes, RuhollahKhomeini's Islamic state). Drawing inspiration from New Zealand, which prefers principled aspirations to a written constitution, Hunter emphasizes that the American exercise of judicial review is itself an extra-constitutional development. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. All readership levels.

Professor Hunter has written an impassioned, original, and timely challenge to the legal sophistry and constitutional obsessions that are undermining U.S. politics. His argument is informed by a comparative cross-national perspective and long study of American legal practices. The result is a heady, provocative ethical defense of democratic ideals against narrow legalism and its corrosive effects on our polity.

About the Author

Kerry L. Hunter is full professor in the Department of Political Economy at the College of Idaho.