Tuesday, August 10, 2021

Can We Recover the Constitution's Constitution?

Dennis Coyle, associate professor in the Department of Politics and a fellow of the Institute for Human Ecology and the Institute for Policy Research at the Catholic University of America, reviewed A Constitution in Full: Recovering the Unwritten Foundation of American Liberty, by Peter Augustine Lawler and Richard M. Reinsch II, at Modern Age.

[quoting the book] "The 'actual constitution' is a country’s 'way of life ... found in a people’s political culture, mores, customs, disposition, and peculiar talents.'

"This insight is not always welcome. I was once asked to give my university’s presentation for Constitution Day, that federally mandated homage to free expression. I used the occasion to point out that the Constitution did not constitute America. I was not asked to speak again."

See American State Papers in Great Books of the Western World (first edition, 52 Vol., 1952) volume 43, (second edition, 60 Vol., 1990) volume 40.

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