ABSTRACT
The Constitution belongs to the American people, but is interpreted by the Justices of the Supreme Court. How they read our founding document is guided by several underlying conflicts that shape their views and influence their decisions. In order to arrive at our own perception of the Constitution, we must understand these enduring conflicts—how the Justices of the Court see them and how we see them. We have identified nine points of conflict, which add up to four distinct schools of interpretation. The debates over the legitimacy of judicial review, the nature of rights, federalism, ordered liberty, religion, transcendence, social facts, precedent, and completeness all add up to the competing schools of Textualism, Common Law Constitutionalism, Originalism, and Living Constitutionalism. How these distinct approaches see the principles, premises, and precedents of the Constitution leads them to very different conclusions about how it should be understood. The purpose of this book is to sort out which way of reading the Constitution makes the most sense to you. There are several conflicts to consider, but they lead to a clearer understanding of our system.
