Liberty, Property, and the Future of Constitutional Development

This book is a discussion of current trends in the constitutional protection of economic liberties. Since the mid-1930's, the Supreme Court has been reluctant to replace legislative judgements on matters of economic regulation with its own. While the Court permits wide legislative experimentation in the economic realm, it scrutinizes governmental attempts to regulate or abridge other civil liberties quite closely. This state of affairs is known as the "double standard." The question of the appropriateness of this unequal treatment by the Court of these two classes of liberties generates much of the controversy in this volume. Other topics dealt with include the current trends in (and relevance of) constitutional law for welfare rights, labor unions, and labor law. Recent Supreme Court decisions on property rights also receive much attention.

Ellen Frankel Paul is Deputy Director of the Social Philosophy and Policy Center and Professor of Political Science at Bowling Green State University. Howard Dickman is Research Associate at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center. He was Research Director of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, and Senior Editor of Harper's Magazine. In addition, both are editors of Liberty, Property and the Foundations of the American Constitution, and Liberty, Property, and Government, also published by SUNY Press.