Constitution Worship

• Published in: Canadian review of American studies 1989-07, Vol.20 (1), p.81-87
• Main Author: Flaherty, David H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0007-7720; 1710-114X
• DOI: 10.3138/CRAS-020-01-05

Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, cds. The Founders' Constitution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.5 vols., xiii + 3520 pp. In a variety of ways Americans continue to mystify Canadians. Two of these American ways will initially concern us here. The first, which also affects other foreigners, is the American tendency, indeed imperative, to discuss issues of public policy in terms of the United States Constitution, as if it were a document the rest of the Western world simply must comprehend and preferably know in detail. Thus, criticisms of weak federal data protection legislation in the United States, in comparison to the situation in other advanced industrial societies, elicit the defensive response that Americans at least enjoy the blessings of the Fourth Amendment (protecting citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures). The problem with this rhetorical retort is that the Fourth Amendment as such has no particular meaning for non-Americans. Foreigners use their own constitutional traditions to explain why certain things are done in certain ways, but they do not generally have the arrogance to expect others to understand their own peculiarities. Such is not the case with the United States.