Congress and the Constitution

Extract

Congress and the Constitution. Edited by Neal Devins and Kieth E. Whittington. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005. 320p. $84.95 cloth, $23.95 paper.

For years, students of American government have been taught a highly compartmentalized version of our democratic system where legislative actors “make” law, actors in the executive branch “enforce” law, and judges in the judicial branch “interpret” law. Under this overly simplistic framework, the Supreme Court is often characterized as citizens' exclusive protection from myopic lawmakers who would flout the dictates of the Constitution to achieve their short-term policy goals and/or enhance their own authority. The collection of essays in Congress and the Constitution, edited by Neal Devins and Keith E. Whittington, presents a challenge to this conventional wisdom.