Contributions by ‘Jack M. Balkin’

Jack M. Balkin* Introduction The quarrel between lawyers and historians about the proper use of history in constitutional law is an old one. It predates the rise of conservative originalism in the 1970s and 1980s. For example, the term “law office history”—now regularly employed to criticize lawyers who engage in historical arguments that are opportunistic,…

Jack M. Balkin* Introduction Constitutional construction is the part of constitutional interpretation in which interpreters implement and give effect to the Constitution—for example, by creating doctrines, practices, and institutions. The idea of constitutional construction is central to the New Originalism, which divides constitutional interpretation into two tasks. Interpretation (in the narrower sense) ascertains the text’s…