TY  - BOOK
AU  - Gerber,Scott Douglas
AU  - Abraham,Henry J.
TI  - To Secure These Rights: The Declaration of Independence and Constitutional Interpretation 
SN  - 9780814730669
AV  - KF4550 .G46 1995
U1  - 342.73/02 20/eng/20230216
PY  - 2020///]
CY  - New York, NY : 
PB  - New York University Press, 
KW  - Constitutional law
KW  - United States
KW  - Natural law
KW  - Philosophy
KW  - POLITICAL SCIENCE / Constitutions
KW  - bisacsh
N1  - Frontmatter --; Contents --; Foreword --; Preface --; Introduction: Liberal Originalism --; I. The Jurisprudence of the American Founding --; 1 The Declaration of Independence --; 2 The Constitution of the United States --; II Natural Rights and the Role of the Court --; 3 The Court --; 4 Checks on the Court --; 5 Constitutional Interpretation --; Conclusion: A New American Revolution? --; Notes --; Works Cited --; Index; restricted access
N2  - 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
UR  - https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814733233.001.0001
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780814733233
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/document/cover/isbn/9780814733233/original
ER  -