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History, Rights, and the Moral Reading
Balkin, Jack M.
Balkin, Jack M.
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Abstract
James Fleming's book, Fidelity to Our Imperfect Constitution, offers a moral reading of the Constitution, which he also calls a "philosophic approach" to interpretation. By this, Fleming means that we should view the Constitution "as embodying abstract moral and political principles." To interpret the Constitution, we must make "normative judgments about how [these principles should be] best understood." This, in turn, will require more than "merely historical research to discover relatively specific original meanings."