To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation

Gerber, Scott Douglas

ISBN 10: 0814730663 / ISBN 13: 9780814730669

Published by NYU Press, USA, 1995

About this Item

PUBLISHER: NYU Press DATE/EDITION: 1995, Firs Edition, no added printings indicated. Number row 1-10 BINDING: Hardbound in red cloth spine with gold lettering and tan cloth covered boards, 315 pages. DUST JACKET: Extremely minor wrinkle at top spine end and top front corner otherwise very good, clean and no rips. BOOK CONDITION: Extremely minor bump to upper front corner otherwise very good plus, clean inside and out, tight binding and unmarked text. DESCRIPTION: Author Scott Douglas Gerber.

Seller Inventory # 008240

Bibliographic Details

• Title: To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation
• Publisher: NYU Press, USA
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0814730663
• ISBN 13: 9780814730669
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

To Secure These Rights enters the fascinating--and often contentious--debate over constitutional interpretation. Scott Douglas Gerber here argues that the Constitution of the United States should be interpreted in light of the natural rights political philosophy of the Declaration of Independence and that the Supreme Court is the institution of American government that should be primarily responsible for identifying and applying that philosophy in American life.
Importantly, the theory advanced in this book--what Gerber calls liberal originalism--is neither consistently liberal nor consistently conservative in the modern conception of those terms. Rather, the theory is liberal in the classic sense of viewing the basic purpose of government to be safeguarding the natural rights of individuals. As Thomas Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men. In essence, Gerber maintains that the Declaration articulates the philosophical ends of our nation and that the Constitution embodies the means to effectuate those ends. Gerber's analysis reveals that the Constitution cannot be properly understood without recourse to history, political philosophy, and law.

About the Author

Scott Douglas Gerber, Ph.D., J.D., is author of To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation and editor of Seriatim: The Supreme Court before John Marshall, both available from New York University Press. He teaches at Ohio Northern University College of Law.