"A Vehicle of Life": The Founders' Intentions and American Perceptions of Their Living Constitution

[...]the radical insistence in 1939 by Maury Maverick, a populistic Congressman from San Antonio, Texas, that the Constitution written in 1787 "is not the sole constitution of our American liberties. [...]we should recall the words that Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison from Paris in 1789...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 2017-07, Vol.107 (4), p.115-130
Main Author: Kammen, Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abortion
Brennan, William J Jr
Constitutional law
Constitutions
Federalism
Judges & magistrates
Jurisprudence
Morality
Public opinion
State laws
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Summary:[...]the radical insistence in 1939 by Maury Maverick, a populistic Congressman from San Antonio, Texas, that the Constitution written in 1787 "is not the sole constitution of our American liberties. [...]we should recall the words that Thomas Jefferson wrote to James Madison from Paris in 1789, that "no society can make a perpetual constitution, or even a perpetua, law." According to the chairman of Mississippi's current commission to draft a new state constitution, the state is determined to draw "a new constitutional blueprint that will allow us to face the future instead of hanging on to the past. [...]if the Constitution is really based upon popular sovereignty-as the framers claimed in theory, and subsequent implementation over time has augmented in actuality-then it can only be described as a living Constitution.
ISSN:0065-9746
2325-9264