September 05, 2012
In the Media
Astral Appetites
by Marc O. DeGirolami
TNR.com
September 5, 2012
Book Review:
Cosmic Constitutional Theory: Why Americans are Losing Their
Inalienable Right to Self-Governance by J. Harvie Wilkinson,
III (Oxford University Press)
Excerpt:
What is killing judicial restraint? In J. Harvie Wilkinson’s
view, constitutional theory is doing the job. Wilkinson is a
longtime judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit,
a prolific writer, and a well-regarded and moderate conservative.
As he writes in his new book, the fall of judicial restraint (and
the subsequent transfer of considerable power from the people to
the judiciary) came with the mid-twentieth century rise of theories
of constitutional interpretation. The presumption shifted: judges
should no longer defer to legislative enactments; they should use
constitutional theory to resolve constitutional conflict.