| The Invisible Constitution (Inalienable Rights) | 
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| Author: Laurence H. Tribe
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $12.10
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (2 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1357
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1
ISBN: 019530425X
Dewey Decimal Number: 342.7302
EAN: 9780195304251
ASIN: 019530425X
Publication Date: September 17, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
As everyone knows, the United States Constitution is a tangible, visible document. Many see it in fact as a sacred text, holding no meaning other than that which is clearly visible on the page. Yet as renowned legal scholar Laurence Tribe shows, what is not written in the Constitution plays a key role in its interpretation. Indeed some of the most contentious Constitutional debates of our time hinge on the extent to which it can admit of divergent readings.
In The Invisible Constitution, Tribe argues that there is an unseen constitution--impalpable but powerful--that accompanies the parchment version. It is the visible document's shadow, its dark matter: always there and possessing some of its key meanings and values despite its absence on the page. As Tribe illustrates, some of our most cherished and widely held beliefs about constitutional rights are not part of the written document, but can only be deduced by piecing together hints and clues from it. Moreover, some passages of the Constitution do not even hold today despite their continuing existence. Amendments may have fundamentally altered what the Constitution originally said about slavery and voting rights, yet the old provisos about each are still in the text, unrevised. Through a variety of historical episodes and key constitutional cases, Tribe brings to life this invisible constitution, showing how it has evolved and how it works. Detailing its invisible structures and principles, Tribe compellingly demonstrates the invisible constitution's existence and operative power.
Remarkably original, keenly perceptive, and written with Tribe's trademark analytical flair, this latest volume in Oxford's Inalienable Rights series offers a new way of understanding many of the central constitutional debates of our time.
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| Customer Reviews:
excellent and informative November 18, 2008
I've finally found it!!! The book more soporific than my dissertation!!! Let me begin my review by saying that, as more an expansionist than a textualist like his colleague from Yale Law, Tribe presents a most agreeable argument to me. Basically, it is argued that the constitution is more than just a sheet of paper with precise words written on it that should not be interpreted by the US Supreme Court, but, rather modified by the citizens. Tribe argues that, of necessity, the USSC must interpret and expand upon our constitutional understandings. He writes about what he's going to say, how it's going to be said, what is being said, and what was just said, leaving very few comments as brilliant as the author is. That's unfortunate, because if he were half as persuasive as Professor Amar, many Americans might have been persuaded by the logic of his arguments. If he had been just a bit more persuasive, perhaps more people might have understood and agreed with his premises. Certainly, I believe him, that more general citizens are interpretivists whereas more scholars might be more inclined toward textualism. By the way, I loved the dust jacket, semi-opaque over a copy of the constitution. I'd love to hear him speak somewhere sometime. I'd purchase this book again and read it again. I'd give him an A+ for billiance and argument but a B- due to limitations on readibility.
I am unable to review what I have never received! October 25, 2008
1 out of 20 found this review helpful
I really wanted to read this book as Prof. Tribe is quite a wonderful explicator of our Constitutional history - unfortunately, I never received my order - I have never received follow-up explanations - nor do I know whether any charges for the lost order have been cleared - yes, I am truly pissed........ AnneDaly
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