Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T19:52:51.710Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

15 - Constitutional Aspirationalism Revisited

from Part III - American Constitutionalism and Constitutional Identity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2024

By
Justin Buckley Dyer
Edited by
Ran Hirschl  and
Yaniv Roznai
Ran Hirschl
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Yaniv Roznai
Affiliation:
Reichman University, Israel
Get access

Summary

One of the core themes of Gary Jacobsohn’s work has been his observation that constitutional aspirations tend to develop within a disharmonic constitutional order. Jacobsohn draws our attention to Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass as models for thinking about the unfolding of U.S. constitutional aspirations within a larger framework of constitutional disharmony. This essay revisits Jacobsohn’s theory of constitutional aspiration, including its underlying philosophical premises, and concludes by putting it in dialogue with recent revisionist accounts of the U.S. constitutional order that downplay, deny, or mute the aspirations that Jacobsohn’s body of scholarship highlights and celebrates.

Keywords

Declaration of Independenceaspirationalismconstitutional disharmonyAbraham LincolnFrederick Douglass
Type
Chapter
Information
Deciphering the Genome of Constitutionalism
The Foundations and Future of Constitutional Identity
 , pp. 193 - 203
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Basler, Roy P., ed. 1953. Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Buccola, Nicholas, ed. 2016. The Essential Douglass: Selected Writings and Speeches. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing.Google Scholar
Carson, Clayborne and Shepard, Kris, eds. 2002. A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Grand Central Publishing.Google Scholar
Foner, Phillip, ed. 1999. Frederick Douglass: Selected Speeches and Writings. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books.Google Scholar
French, Jonathan, ed. 1857. The True Republican: Containing the Inaugural Addresses … of All of the Presidents of the Unites States from 1789 to 1857. Philadelphia: J.B. & Smith Company.Google Scholar
Graber, Mark A. 2006. Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hannah-Jones, Nicole. 2019. “Our Democracy’s Founding Ideals Were False When They Were Written. Black Americans Have Fought to Make Them True.” New York Times, August 4, 2019. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=0EDDC383885BCB24C8E9B85B48E2D28E&gwt=regi&assetType=REGIWALL.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. 1977. Pragmatism, Statesmanship, and the Supreme Court. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. 1988. The Supreme Court and the Decline of Constitutional Aspiration Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. 1993. Apple of Gold. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. 2003. The Wheel of Law. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. 2010. Constitutional Identity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. 2021. “Was Abraham Lincoln a Constitutional Revolutionary?” Constitutional Studies 7: 77–91.Google Scholar
Jacobsohn, Gary J. and Roznai, Yaniv. 2020. Constitutional Revolution. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Johnson, Lyndon. 1964. “Remarks Upon Signing the Civil Rights Bill.” Miller Center. https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/july-2-1964-remarks-upon-signing-civil-rights-bill.Google Scholar
Mills, Charles W. 1997. The Racial Contract. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Rogers. 1993. “Beyond Myrdal, Tocqueville, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America.” American Political Science Review 87(3): 549–566.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×