ABSTRACT
The Constitution may be our clearest definition of what we are as a people, yet how we read it leads to very different conclusions. Four major schools of thought, or ways of reading the document, define the boundaries of our constitutional controversies. Each school of interpretation has virtues and flaws. None is without criticism. From the perspective of a citizen attempting to understand the Constitution in the most legitimate and accurate way, perhaps the best means of comprehending each approach is through the positions each takes on the nine points of conflict we have discussed.
