Constitutional liberalism through thick and thin: Reflections on Frank Michelman’s Constitutional Essentials

Author:

Fleming James E1ORCID,McClain Linda C1

Affiliation:

1. Boston University, USA

Abstract

In his new book, Constitutional Essentials, Frank Michelman provides a splendid elaboration and defense of ‘the constitutional theory of political liberalism’ implicit in John Rawls’s classic work, Political Liberalism. In this essay, we make some observations about what a difference 30 years makes, comparing the political and constitutional climate in which Rawls wrote and published Political Liberalism in 1993 with the climate in which Michelman wrote and published this exegesis of it. We focus on (1) changes in our circumstances of pluralism, including the accentuation of polarization and unreasonable views, and (2) the simultaneous breakdown of trust in the Supreme Court authoritatively to resolve disputes concerning constitutional essentials. Throughout, we acknowledge and seek to reckon with the possibility that Michelman may have given Rawls’s liberal principle of legitimacy its fullest, most coherent account just at the moment when the possibility of realizing it seems to be passing.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Reference47 articles.

1. The Cycles of Constitutional Time

2. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, 142 S.Ct. 2228. 2022.

Cited by 2 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. Response;Philosophy & Social Criticism;2024-06-20

2. The Luxembourg Symposium on Frank Michelman’s Constitutional Essentials (Oxford University Press, 2022);Philosophy & Social Criticism;2024-06-19

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