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6 - Identifying the Solution
H. Jefferson Powell, Duke University, North Carolina
Book:

The Practice of American Constitutional Law

Published online:

05 May 2022

Print publication:

19 May 2022, pp 172-202
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Summary

Lawyers are problem solvers, and the specific job of constitutional lawyers is to solve problems that arise out of the basic political arrangements of the American political community, arrangements that include the written Constitution, the institutions of the federal government that the text authorizes and of the state governments that it presupposes, the community’s commitment to limit public action by constitutional prohibitions, and the mechanism of judicial review by which constitutional law controversies are usually resolved. The previous four chapters have said a great deal about the tools and perspectives constitutional lawyers use in articulating arguments that they hope will persuade readers that their proposed solution to a problem is the right one. With those tools and perspectives in mind, what we can say about how the readers are to decide which of two or more competing solutions is in fact the most persuasive one?