1989 Articles

The Constitution's Accommodation of Social Change

Hamburger, Philip

Did the framers and ratifiers of the United States Constitution think that changes in American society would require changes in the text or interpretation of the Constitution? If those who created the Constitution understood or even anticipated the possibility of major social alterations, how did they expect constitutional law - text and interpretation - to accommodate such developments? The inquiry pursued here concentrates on the views of the framers and ratifiers while they were creating the Constitution rather than the development of their ideas before or after that task.