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THE COURT AFFIRMS THE SOCIAL CONTRACT
Balkin, Jack M.
Balkin, Jack M.
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Abstract
In civics class we learn that federal courts decide whether laws passed by Congress and the state legislatures are constitutional. Therefore the federal courts are the guardians of our Constitution. That is certainly true, but it is not the whole story. In fact, the most important function of the federal courts is to legitimate state building by the political branches. That is the best way to understand what happened in the Health Care Case.1 It also helps explain why Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion is written the way it is.