03124cam a2200349 i 4500 1343982198 TxAuBib 20240627120000.0 231021s2024||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2023288455 9781668021538 HRD 32.00 1668021536 HRD 32.00 TxAuBib rda Breyer, Stephen G., 1938-, author. Reading the Constitution : why I chose pragmatism, not textualism / Stephen Breyer. First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition. New York : Simon & Schuster, [2024] ©2024. xxix, 335 pages ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. Preface: my way -- Purpose vs. textualism -- Purpose-based approaches -- The textualist approach -- Interpreting statutory law -- The traditional use of text and purpose -- The text/purpose divide -- Static or dynamic? -- Consequences -- Legislative history -- Constitutional values -- Resolving the text/purpose tension -- Why judges should consider purposes: a summary -- Interpreting the constitution -- The constitution -- The traditional approach to constitutional interpretation -- Constitutional textualism -- When the text runs out: the limits of constitutional textualism -- Legal stability: Stare Decisis -- Why values, purposes, and workability provide a better way to interpret the constitution -- Workability: history and practial experience -- Workability: deciding where values conflict -- Workability: direct applications of basic values -- Paradigm shifts on the court -- Three paradigm shifts -- Are we undergoing the next paradigm shift? -- Conclusion. The relatively new judicial philosophy of textualism dominates the Supreme Court. Textualists claim that the right way to interpret the Constitution and statutes is to read the text carefully and examine the language as it was understood at the time the documents were written. This, however, is not Justice Breyer’s philosophy nor has it been the traditional way to interpret the Constitution since the time of Chief Justice John Marshall. Justice Breyer recalls Marshall’s exhortation that the Constitution must be a workable set of principles to be interpreted by subsequent generations. Most important in interpreting law, says Breyer, is to understand the purposes of statutes as well as the consequences of deciding a case one way or another. He illustrates these principles by examining some of the most important cases in the nation’s history, among them the Dobbs and Bruen decisions from 2022 that he argues were wrongly decided and have led to harmful results. 20240704. jz. United States Constitution. United States Supreme Court. Constitutional law United States. Constitutional history United States.