ABSTRACT
The institution of judicial review, particularly as it has been applied during the past half-century, makes the constitutional law of the United States a subject of unusual interest for the student of the history of political ideas. Principles developed mainly in the realm of political theory have been put to new uses in the work of building the law of the Constitution. Unquestionably the authors of the early bills of rights and of the Federal Constitution believed that one of the rights given and protected by the laws of nature was that of owning property and of enjoying the profits gained from it. The justices of the Supreme Court and of the lower Federal and state courts who find in due process of law the means of giving protection to property rights may go to extremes in their interpretation of this principle of "fundamental law".
