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INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 549
I. FRAMEWORK ORIGINALISM AND SKYSCRAPER ORIGINALISM ................................ 550
II. RETHINKING LIVING CONSTITUTIONALISM ........................................................... 559
A. Living Constitutionalism as Constitutional Construction ........................... 559
B. Varieties of Constitutional Construction ..................................................... 566
C. The Role of Courts in Constitutional Construction ..................................... 569
D. Constitutional Constructions and Constitutional Revolutions .................... 575
E. Why Courts Cooperate in Constitutional Construction ............................... 583
F. Durability, Canonicity, and the Emergence of New Secondary Rules ......... 585
III. LIVING CONSTITUTIONALISM AND DEMOCRATIC LEGITIMACY .............................. 592
A. Courts Are Bad at Tackling, Good at Piling On ......................................... 593
B. Eliminate the Middleman? .......................................................................... 598
IV. LIVING CONSTITUTIONALISM AS A PROCESS ......................................................... 601
A. Individuals and Systems .............................................................................. 603
B. Advice to Judges or Theory of Legitimacy? ................................................ 603
C. Keeping up with the Times? ........................................................................ 606
D. The Translation of Constitutional Politics into Constitutional Law: On Horizontal and Vertical Translation ........................................................... 607
E. The Role of Dissent in a System of Living Constitutionalism ...................... 609
F. Living Constitutionalism and the Problem of Constitutional Evil ............... 61 1
CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................ 614
INTRODUCTION
Original meaning originalism and living constitutionalism are compatible positions. In fact, they are two sides of the same coin. Although not all versions of these theories are compatible, the most intellectually sound versions of each theory are. Recognizing why they are compatible helps us understand how legitimate constitutional change occurs in the American constitutional system. The first Part of this Article offers a short summary of what I believe is the best account of original meaning originalism and what I regard as its central purpose: setting up a basic structure for government, making politics possible, and creating a framework for future constitutional construction.
The second Part of the Article tries to rethink what we mean by a "living" Constitution. I believe that living constitutionalism, properly understood, implies something different from what most advocates and critics of living constitutionalism have assumed. It is not primarily a theory about how judges should interpret the Constitution. First, it is not a theory of constitutional interpretation - in the limited sense of ascertaining constitutional meaning - but a theory of constitutional construction - that is, the process of building institutions of government and implementing and applying the constitutional text and its underlying principles. Second,...